General Hospital the Femslash Version
by buffyfaith19
Summary: This is a Femslash version of GH. It will focus on the women of PC and their relationships with each other.
1. Chapter 1

**Title**. **General Hospital the Femslash Version**

**Author**:** buffyfaith19**

**Show**: **General Hospital**

**Pairings**: **Well, there will be infinite pairings using the current characters and I will be bringing back a few former characters as well**

**Rating**: **M**

**Summary**: **This is a Femslash version of General Hospital, with the storylines being about the women of PC and their relationships with other women**.

**Feedback**: **Feedback is welcome and appreciated and is the lifeblood of all writers.**

**Author's Notes**: **I will pick it up in July of 2008, where I will keep the characters histories in tact as much as humanly possible, however, if need be I will explain any changes that I make in the story.  
I have enough written for well over 10 very long chapters and am finally ready to begin posting the story. It's mid December now and the ironic part is nothing has happened on GH in the 5 months since I began writing it.**

**Disclaimer**: **I do not own any of the characters that were created by the writers of General Hospital, which is owned by ABC. This story was created for fun and no profit is being made from it**.

**Chapter 1**

**Elizabeth Webber's Home**.

Elizabeth Webber let out a sigh of relief as she walked up the steps to her home. After a long day on her feet she was happy to be home where she could relax and spend some time with her two kids.

When she opened the door she was more than a little surprised to find Sam standing on the other side of the door, "What do you want?"

"I need to talk to you." Sam said, stepping past Elizabeth as she walked into the living room, turning around, "I know about you and Lulu and I think it's time Lucky found out."

Elizabeth's face went white as a ghost and she quickly shut the front door and rushed towards Sam, grabbing her arm and shaking her, "You can't do that. I thought we were past all this? Why would you want to hurt me or hurt Lucky for that matter?"

"I've had a bit of a change of heart you might say." Sam smiled, pulling her arm from Elizabeth's grasp, "As you might know I ended things with Maxie a couple weeks ago and well, I keep having these thoughts of another woman running through my head and I just needed to talk to someone about it."

"Why come in here threatening to tell Lucky about me and Lulu?" Elizabeth asked, trying to figure out what was going on in Sam's pretty head.

"I was joking." Sam said with a laugh, "Obviously I need to work on my delivery or something, but the reason I need to talk to you is because you're the woman I keep thinking about."

"Me? Why would you be thinking about me?"

" You have to ask?" Sam asked with a sexy smile.

"What happened at the ball was a mistake and I told you that." Elizabeth said, walking away from Sam so she didn't have to look at her, "It was one kiss in a moment of weakness. That's all it was, so you need to move on."

"One kiss? That's what you remember?" Sam said, shaking her bed at Elizabeth's poor memory, "I think you know it was more than one kiss. We did more than just kiss, we were all over each other in the elevator and if it didn't get fixed, we would've done it all and you know it."

Elizabeth cringed as Sam recalled the very intimate details of the night, "But we didn't, so you need to move on. I have. I'm happy with Lulu now, so please don't ruin that."

Sam shook her head and cringed every time Elizabeth mentioned Lulu, "How can you be happy with her? She's not going to be content with you. She's in between guys and as soon as the next one looks at her, she's going to go running. Why would you want to live like that?"

"That's not true." Elizabeth said, defending Lulu's past as best she could, "We were all like that at her age. Looking for love and not knowing where we'd find it, but that didn't stop us from looking. I think she's finally at a point in her life where she's happy and I don't worry about her leaving me for anyone, guy or girl."

"Aren't you the trusting type." Sam said sarcastically, still smiling at the sight of Elizabeth, "So you have no feelings for me at all?"

Elizabeth hesitated for a moment, again turning away from Sam, "It doesn't matter what I feel for you. We've finally got past all that nonsense from our past. We are finally able to be civil to each other, but that kiss was a mistake and I'm asking you to move on and not cause any trouble for me and Lulu."

"Why would you stay with her when I can see how much you want me?" Sam said, moving in and grabbing Elizabeth in her arms, "Tell me you don't want to kiss me?"

Looking up at Sam's full sexy lips, Elizabeth couldn't find an answer, choosing to turn away and say nothing.

Sam smiled at Elizabeth's reaction and pulled her head up and leaned down and kissed her on the lips. She kissed her hard and deep and when Elizabeth began kissing her back, Sam knew she was in.

**Kate Howard's Office**

Lulu sat at her desk, looking through Kate's itinerary for her trip to NY when she noticed a glaring mistake and stood up from her desk and walked over to Maxie, "You booked Kate for two events at one time. Are you an idiot?"

Maxie barely blinked at Lulu's latest rant, "If you want to cry about something, tell Kate, not me, because I'm actually working right now."

"Shut up and look." Lulu yelled, pushing Maxie's hands from her keyboard and switching to Kate's itinerary page, "Look, you have her going to lunch at 11:30 with the editor's of Vogue and then at noon, you have her giving a speech across town for Cosmopolitan. How do you suppose she's going to do both of those things at once?"

Finally, Maxie began to look at a little concerned, "I didn't do that. You book the events, not me."

"I do not. That's your job now." Lulu explained, "We agreed on this."

"We did not." Maxie said, shaking her head at Lulu's absurd accusations.

"Oh god, you are such a liar." Lulu yelled, giving Maxie a light smack on her shoulder as she walked back to her desk in a huff, "Thanks a lot."

"You're welcome and don't hit me again." Maxie ordered, glaring back at her arch enemy.

"Give me a break, I barely nudged you and you deserved a lot worse, so just go back to doing nothing and stop bothering me."

"I'm hardly doing nothing, I'm working on Kate's dinner party for next Friday." Maxie looked over at Lulu and then back at her computer screen, "Oh and look, I don't see an invitation for you. How sad is that?"

"I don't have time to fight with you, but I better have an invitation, because Elizabeth is looking forward to this and we are going and we will have a good time, so do not mess this up or you'll regret it."

Maxie smiled as Lulu began to get flustered, "I never understood what you see in that lying bitch. Even you hated her for what she did to Lucky and now you're sleeping with her? Talk about flaky."

"You shut up about her. I warned you about that." Lulu yelled, getting to her feet and glaring back at Maxie, "Why is it that Sam can make peace with her but you still hate her for what you did? Grow up okay and just stop talking to me."

"Elizabeth lied for months about the baby. She never deserved Lucky, but I guess in a way, she does deserve you, so whatever."

"Oh right and you were an angel and did nothing wrong. Delusional much?" Lulu asked with a laugh, "Isn't it ironic that you ended up with Lucky's girlfriend? That wasn't evil or wrong either was it? Even though she was still with Lucky when you got your claws into her?"

"You twist everything, so I'm done talking to you." Maxie said, not wanting to discuss Sam at all.

Lulu couldn't help notice Maxie become quiet and sad, something she rarely showed in the office, "Well, at least I know how to shut you up."

"Gloat on witch, but everyone knows that you and Elizabeth are doomed, so enjoy it while you can."

"Jealous?"

"Please, of you and Elizabeth, I don't think so." Maxie said with a healthy helping of disgust.

Kate walked in, noticed her two blonde employees clam up and knew what was going in, "I hope I don't have to warn you two again about bringing your personal lives into the office. If you can't get along you are both going to be fired. This is your last warning. If I even sense the slightest bit of animosity in this office, that's it. Gone. Both of you. Is that clear?"

Both girls smiled and nodded yes, knowing it was best not to speak when Kate was angry.

"Good, now I have a luncheon engagement with Diane, so could you call her for me Maxie and make sure it's still a go?"

"Of course." Maxie nodded with a big happy smile.

"Thank you." Kate said and then walked over to Lulu, "I need to speak with you in my office."

Lulu's fake smile turned to a stunned look of confusion and when she saw Maxie smiling at her, she knew it wasn't good. Trying to ignore Maxie's taunting, Lulu marched into Kate's office, closed the door and sat down across from her, "Am I fired?"

Kate smiled at Lulu's reaction, "No, this isn't about that. I try not to get involved in the personal lives of my employees, but in spite of the constant bickering between you and Maxie, I like to think of you as friends and I came across some information that you may not want to hear, but I feel it's important that you do."

"I don't know what you're talking about. What kind of information?"

"It's about your relationship with Elizabeth." Kate said, pausing for a long time as she paced around Lulu, "I don't know how to say this, but as you know at the party a couple weeks ago on Luke's yacht there was a shooting, well as part of the investigation they confiscated all the security cameras from the yacht. A friend of mine had access to these and saw something that concerns you in a round about way."

"I'm lost. Just tell me what you know."

"I hate to be the one to tell you this, but at the party Elizabeth was kissing and doing a lot more than that with Sam when one of the elevator's stopped."

Lulu immediately began shaking her head, "No. She wouldn't do that to me. How can you know anything if you haven't seen the tapes?"

"Alexis has and I think she knows what her daughter looks like."

Lulu got up from the desk and paced around the large office in a daze. Kate got up and walked over to her, put her hands on her shoulders, "I'm sorry I'm giving you such bad news. If you need to take the afternoon off you should."

"I don't understand. We've been so happy lately." Lulu said, thinking back to that night, "Actually, when I think about it, Elizabeth became even more committed to us after that party, in fact she practically jumped my bones when we got home from the party, but I bet she wasn't even thinking of me that night. God I'm so mad right now. How could she do this?"

Kate put her arms around Lulu and comforted her as she cried some of her anger out. Maxie walked up to the office, spotted Kate and Lulu in an embrace and couldn't help but smile. Staying to watch, just in case something else happened.

**The Zacchara Estate.**

Claudia Zacchara sat in her big comfy chair, looking at the latest news in the business world, pondering her next investment when the door to her den flew open.

Amelia Joffe stormed inside, fuming as she walked up to Claudia's desk, "What the hell are you doing? You stole the video tape of the shooting."

"Do I know you?" Claudia asked with a smile, putting her feet up on her desk.

"You know damn well who I am." Amelia yelled, "I don't know how you got a hold of that tape, but I want it back or I'm going to the police."

Laughing hysterically as Amelia's threat, Claudia got up from her chair and slowly walked over to the tall redhead, "It's always puzzling to me when a smart woman like yourself says something so incredibly stupid it defies logic." As Amelia was about to reply Claudia put her finger over her lips and shook her head, "Let me explain before you say anything. You come into the home of a known mobster, threaten them and expect to walk out alive? Is that your plan?"

Watching Claudia pull out a long, serrated knife and slid it up her arm, over her shoulder until it was touching her pretty little neck, Amelia's anger turned to fear in a flash, "You don't want to kill me."

Claudia smiled and ran the knife up over her soft cheeks, then back down to her large breasts, pushing it gently against the stomach, "It's pretty sharp isn't it? You see, the blade does serious damage when it goes in, but with those sharp little edges poking out from it, you'd be amazed at the damage it does when you twist around and then pull it out. Have you ever gutted a fish?"

Amelia looked down at the razor sharp blade moving dangerously close to her stomach and backed away from Claudia, "Oh god, you don't want to do that. I don't even want the tape now. I 'm sure whatever was on it was not important and I can find something else to do a show on."

"Well, that's probably true, but there is the matter of you making threats to me." Claudia said with as she whispered in Amelia's ear, "As a female mobster I really can't be seen as weak, so I don't know that I have a choice."

"Wait." Amelia said, grabbing Claudia's hand and pushing it slightly away from her stomach, "I can help you. I have connections everywhere, including the police department and I know Sonny and Jason personally. I even interviewed your father about 5 years ago, so I'm much more useful alive."

"Is that so?" Claudia asked, enjoying the view of Amelia's cleavage as she bent forward, "Why should I trust you?"

"I may have come here without thinking it through, but normally I'm a very smart reporter and I have no desire to die, so whatever I can do to help you I'll be happy to do."

"You know what I've noticed in my time in this dangerous world that I live in, it's that people tend to be very cooperative when their life is in danger, but once that fear is removed, they tend to go back to their old ways." Claudia said as she slid her hand up around Amelia's soft pretty neck, "You see Miss Joffe, I'm not sure I can risk that."

Johnny walked in to find his sister with her hand around Amelia's waist, while she slid the knife up and down her chest, "Would you put that away."

Claudia smiled at her brother and then slowly let go of Amelia, "It seems to be your lucky day. You can go now, but I will be in touch and will let you know how you can help me in the future. I don't think I need to explain what happens if you do decide to go to the police."

"I won't. I promise." Amelia said, slowly removing Claudia's hand from around her waist and sliding past her as her breasts brushed up against her arm.

Claudia watched closely as Amelia walked out of the room, enjoying the tight pants she had on immensely.

Rolling his eyes at his sisters wandering eyes, Johnny turned her head towards him, "Claudia, would you stop staring and listen to what I just found out."

"Stop being a buzz kill. What are you doing here anyway?" Claudia asked as she walked around to her desk, "You're supposed to be with dad."

"That's what I need to talk to you about." Johnny said, waiting for Claudia to have a seat before sitting down across from her, "Dad wants to make a deal. "

"What kind of deal?"

"I don't know what's going on with him, but something changed. I can see it in his face. He wants us to run the business. He said he's not going to interfere anymore."

Laughing at how sincere Johnny seemed to be, "Maybe being crazy is hereditary with the Zacchara men."

"I wouldn't say this if I didn't believe it." Johnny said, taking out a long multi-page document from his jacket, "This gives us power of attorney over all his assets. He said he's going to Florida to visit Uncle Leo. He's keeping some cash for expenses, but other than that everything else has been signed over to us."

Claudia ripped the paper from Johnny's hands, sat it in on her desk and began to read through it. After a good twenty minutes of reading, she tossed it back at her brother, "I still don't buy it. Why would he just give up all of sudden? He was determined to keep me out of this and now he just willingly changes his mind? Did you even bother to ask why?"

"Yes Claudia I did." Johnny said, annoyed at his sister's question, "He said it was time to move on. Now the only strange thing about all this is Logan's reaction. For whatever reason he was very quiet when I was there, which is not like him at all."

"I think it's clear that something happened between yesterday and today, so we better find out what it is." Claudia said, getting back up from her chair, her tight red dress hugging every curve on her well toned body, "If Corinthos or Morgan got to him, then we are going to have a lot more trouble than we want."

"I've got people looking into this right now. I hope to have some information in a couple hours."

"Good, until then, I think I'm going to pay dear old dad a visit."

"Don't ruin this." Johnny grabbed his sister's arm as hurried past him, "Go chase that reporter babe, but do not make dad change his mind."

Claudia glared at her brother until he let go, "Thanks for reminding about Amelia, I do need to pay her a visit, but that will have to wait. I'll talk to you later."

**End of Chapter 1**

**Feedback is welcome and appreciated. Please let me know if you're reading it and if you want more. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2.**

**General Hospital**.

Logan pushed Anthony Zacchara's wheelchair towards the elevator when he was stopped by Dr. Robin Scorpio, "Where do you think you're going?"

Anthony looked up at the short, but pretty doctor, "Don't worry, I'm going to be in good care. My brother has a nurse who works for him full time, so I'll be fine. Thank you for all your help, but it's time for me to go."

Robin followed closely, stopping in front of the elevator, "We discussed this earlier. Your best option is to remain here and take radiation and chemotherapy treatments. I know the odds aren't what you might like, but they are still better doing nothing at all."

"I appreciate your concern, but I've lived a long life and honestly, I don't have the willpower to fight this. I want to spend what I time I have left with my brother. In my climb to power he's the one who got left behind." Anthony said with a weak smile, before moving into the elevator, "Thank Doctor Drake for me. Goodbye Miss Scorpio."

Robin could only watch as Logan pushed Anthony into the elevator.

**Nurse's Locker Room**.

Nadine opened her locker, let out an exhausted sigh and began to undress. Leyla walked in and stopped at the front of the lockers, enjoying the view as Nadine stripped down to nothing and walked slowly into the showers.

Leyla moved over to her locker and proceeded to do the exact same thing, joining Nadine in the shower, stepping into the stall beside her, grabbing the soap and rubbing it in her hands. She lathered it up and began to wash her long slender legs, starting at the top of her thighs and sliding all the way down to her ankles.

Unable to ignore Leyla's erotic shower techniques, Nadine smiled and took a couple steps towards her dark haired friend, dropping her soap down by her feet, "Oh, could you grab that for me?"

Smiling up at Nadine, Leyla leaned down, grabbed the soap and handed it to her, "Thank you. I'm not usually so clumsy, maybe you could show me a better way to do this?"

"I think I could be persuaded to do that, but maybe it would be best if we waited until we got home to continue this little game?" Nadine said as she began to laugh.

"Oh come on, I was getting into this." Leyla said with her sexy British accent.

Nadine still melted when she heard Leyla's sexy voice, "You know someone will be in here soon, this place is never quiet for long. I think we can sneak in a couple kisses before we're interrupted."

"Well, let's find out." Leyla smiled, leaning in and kissing Nadine softly on the lips, her arms wrapped around her tiny waist. They kissed long and hard and oh so passionately, all but forgetting where they were, until the sound of someone clearing their throat brought them back to reality.

Robin stood outside the shower stalls looking very displeased, "I suggested you two finish your shower very far apart and then meet me in the nurses lounge before you leave."

Both women nodded and parted ways, not wanting to make things worse.

**Carly's Home**.

Carly stood staring at Michael's empty room, wishing so much that he was lying in his bed, sleeping peacefully and getting ready for a new day. It had been months since the shooting and still there was no sign of progress. Not that anything would make Carly give up, but it did take a toll on her life, mainly her marriage to Jax.

Unable to see eye to eye on much of anything, the two agreed to get a divorce before they ended up hating each other. They remain friends to this day, with Jax visiting Michael every chance he gets, while trying to help Carly cope as best he can.

After another long trip down memory lane, Carly closed the door and walked down the hall, down the stairs and into the living room where she came to a complete stop, put her hand over her mouth and then just fell to the floor.

As she woke up, she wiped her eyes, tried to focus them and sure enough she saw the same things she did when she feinted earlier. She reached out and slowly touched the person on the arm, jumping back in the sofa as she felt the soft smooth skin of another woman, "What the hell is going on? You're dead."

Courtney smiled back at Carly and put her hand over Carly's knee, "As the cliché goes, reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated."

"No, I was at your funeral." Carly said, still not believing what here eyes were seeing.

"I know this is a huge shock, but on the positive side, I can finally explain what happened, but you're not going to like it one bit." Courtney said with a guilty smile.

"I don't care why, I'm happy you're here, I just can't let myself believe it, because I can't take another loss. Not now."

"I'm so sorry about Michael." Courtney said, leaning in and hugging Carly tightly, "I've had no contact with anyone since my death. I didn't know about Michael until I was free to leave, which was only a couple days ago. I would've been here had I known. I hope you know that."

"Just tell me what happened."

"Okay, you know that I was never supposed to have children. I was told I was barren and I refused to accept it." Courtney said, reliving a low point in her life, "I began searching for a solution to this. I knew there had to be way for me to have a child. In my search I came across some information about a drug that was supposed to be able to reverse the effects and allow me the possibility to have a child."

"Well that's great, but why didn't you tell me this is what you did? I would've been there for you. I could've helped."

"No, I couldn't do that. This drug isn't on the market. It's not FDA approved, but I did a lot of research and many doctors felt it should be, but it hadn't received the okay yet, but I couldn't wait. I felt like if I didn't have child I was going to go crazy. I couldn't think of anything else, but how empty I felt."

"I understand why you did this. I really do, but I don't understand how any of this has to do with you faking your death."

"Since this drug was not available, I had to find a way to get my hands on it. I found out that a large amount of this drug had been stolen by a notorious mobster from NY. He makes Sonny look like a saint. His name was Geno 'the strangler' Maletti. I got in touch with him through his many, many different lieutenants and finally arranged a meeting."

"Are you crazy? Please tell me that Jason, Jax or Nikolas were there with you?"

"I couldn't risk that. This was my problem and I was determined to find a solution on my own." Courtney explained, as she remembered back to that time when things were so messed up, "Anyway, I explained to him my situation and he seemed genuinely moved by it and agreed to sell me the pills."

"I can't believe you did this on your own." Carly said, wanting to be upset, but finding herself admiring Courtney's initiative, "You're starting to be too much like me and that's not always good thing."

"I learned from the best." Courtney said with a big smile, "After I had agreed to buy the drugs, I went back to my hotel and I was swarmed by the FBI. They wanted to nail Maletti for theft and drug trafficking and were going to use me to do it. If I didn't, they were going to arrest me for buying illegal drugs."

"Oh god. How can they do that? That's blackmail."

Courtney laughed, "They had all the cards. I had no choice but to agree, the only thing I wanted in return was to keep the pills I had bought. They agreed, but warned me that it was very dangerous to take any medication that was not FDA approved."

"So what happened to make you fake your own death?"

"When I went to meet Maletti for a refill, things didn't go according to plan." Courtney said, pacing back and forth in front of Carly, "I knew the FBI was very close, but I was also very nervous and Maletti noticed this and he ripped my shirt open and spotted the wire and there I was, in the middle of the most dangerous mobster on the east coast's living room, with 4 of his bodyguards wearing a wire."

"OMG, how did you get out of there alive?"

"I had to resort to using my body as a distraction and luckily for me, men can be so gullible." Courtney said with a cute smile, "I screamed for them not to shoot and slowly removed my bra. My blouse was already ripped open, so I just took it a step further. Anyway, as they were busy gawking at my breasts, the FBI stormed in. I hit the ground and after a lengthy shootout, all of Maletti's men were dead, but he somehow escaped."

"I'm just glad you weren't hurt." Carly said, still thinking about Courtney's distraction

"They figured Maletti would come after me, because he hated to lose, so they allowed me to come back to Port Charles under the condition I didn't tell a soul about what had happened or what was going to happen. They did something to me, stopped my heart and made it look I was dead. When my body was in the morgue, they removed it, took me to a safe house in Wyoming and I stayed there, in this small house for the last two years."

"I'm assuming they finally caught this Maletti character?"

"Yes, they caught him over a year ago, but it wasn't until last week that he was convicted of countless crimes, including 6 brutal murders and is now on death row. That is why I'm here."

Carly got up and gave Courtney a nice warm hug, "I can't tell you how happy I am that you're alive and well and are back in my life again."

"I'm glad to be here. I've never had such a boring time in my life. I spent all my time in such a tiny house. I couldn't go out, they would do my shopping and bring it back to me. I had TV, radio and even a computer, but they wouldn't let me be online for fear I'd contact someone, which I would've. "

"I guess it's time I filled you in on everything that's happened since you've been gone." Carly said as she sat Courtney down on the sofa and began updating her on the latest Port Charles gossip.

**Elizabeth Webber's Home**.

Lulu opened the front door and saw Elizabeth playing with her two kids, looking beautiful and happy as could be. She walked in, put her jacket and purse on the sofa and joined Elizabeth in playing with the two adorable children.

After enjoying the kids for a nice long time, Elizabeth took them upstairs for a nap and came back down to see Lulu waiting for her, looking anything but happy to see her, "You're looking very serious, is something wrong?"

"I was going to ask you that." Lulu said as she walked up to her beautiful lover, "Is there anything you want to tell me? A secret perhaps?"

Elizabeth took a long time to respond, trying to figure out just what Lulu might be talking about, "You seem very angry right now, but I don't know why. Maybe you could tell me why so we could work it out?"

"No, you will tell me your secret or we are over."

"Lulu, what are you talking about?"

"Look, I'm giving you a chance to come clean." Lulu screamed, hating that she had to keep pushing it, "Haven't you lied enough in your life? Do you not learn anything? Or is lying just who you are?"

Seeing the look of pain in Lulu's eyes, Elizabeth realized what was going on, "OMG, you know."

"Know what? Say it."

"Lulu, let me explain." Elizabeth said, inching closer to Lulu so she could touch her, but Lulu wanted no part of that and backed away, "I didn't mean for this to happen. I mean not telling you. What happened with Sam was nothing but a mistake. That's all it was. She wanted me to give her and I a shot. I felt that it was too soon and there was still too much pain and anger to do anything else, but try and be friends."

"I know you kissed her and were making out in the elevator and from what I've heard, you would've done a lot more had the elevator not been fixed."

"No. It wasn't like that. She kissed me. I did not seek her out at all."

"You didn't say no either." Lulu yelled, not listening to Elizabeth at all, "You kissed her back and you were not just some victim of Sam's unwanted advances, you were a willing participant, so don't lie again."

"But that's not true." Elizabeth explained, trying to get Lulu to look at her, "I admit that I may have kissed her back, but it was instinct, not because I loved her or anything like that. Yes, she wanted more and began touching me and maybe I didn't stop her fast enough, but I don't love Sam. I'm with you and I'm happy. Please don't let this ruin what we have."

"What do we have? You just told me the only reason you said no to Sam was it was too soon, so that tells me that you believe there is hope for you and Sam in the future and I'm just the transition girl."

"Don't say that." Elizabeth said with a sad sigh, "This happened at a time where we had just had a fight. We were at the party but we were not together. You were mad and you were off flirting with Johnny to piss me off. Sam found me and well, everything I did after that is all my fault, but I didn't think it was the right time to bring it up. We hadn't even made up. I wanted us to get back on some solid ground before I told you about Sam. Of course, once we did patch things up, I admit I was selfish and didn't want to ruin it. Only because it was meaningless, as meaningless as you flirting with Johnny."

"I didn't make out with Johnny did I?" Lulu asked, feeling very pleased to say that, "Anyway, I don't know what to do now. I thought you were done with the lying. I guess it was stupid of me, but I thought I meant more to you than that. I thought we could talk about anything, get through anything, because we trusted each other."

"You are blowing this out of proportion." Elizabeth said, feeling her life falling apart yet again, "Please let me make this up to you. I can. Just tell me what you need right now?"

"I think I need to be alone." Lulu said in a soft whisper, her head hung low, her eyes filled with sadness and confusion, "I'm going to go up and say goodnight to the kids and then I'm going to stay at my dad's place tonight. I just need some time to think."

"No, don't go. Please." Elizabeth pleaded, "I can't make this right if you aren't here."

"I'm sorry, but I just need to be alone right now. I'll call you when I get to my dad's place." Lulu said softly, turning and going up the stairs as Elizabeth looked on in tears.

** Jake's**.

Maxie sat alone at the bar, drinking her trouble away when Sam walked in and spotted her. She walked over and sat down beside her, "Well, what brings you here?"

"Same thing as always, I'm miserable and drinking makes me forget it all."

Sam had the bartender pour her a beer as she settled in beside Maxie, "What made you miserable?"

"How about you for starters?" Maxie said, smiling at her ex, "It really doesn't help seeing you either. Let me guess, Elizabeth turned you down, again, and you're here to drink yourself into a coma?"

"Close." Sam said with a laugh, "I don't understand Elizabeth at all. I know she wants me, but she won't admit it."

"Oh Sam, everyone wants you, you're beautiful, sexy and when you wear clothes like that, " Maxie said, referring to Sam's low cut top, showing off her very large, full breasts, "I don't think anyone alive could resist you."

Sam smiled at Maxie's wandering eyes, "Is that a compliment or are you hitting on me?"

Maxie smiled at Sam, "You can take it any way you like, but the point is, just because Elizabeth thinks you are physically attractive, doesn't mean she wants to be with you. There's more to a relationship than just sex you know."

"When did Maxie Jones discover this amazing fact?" Sam asked with an amused smile.

"I think it was being with you." Maxie said with a very big laugh, "We never really found a way to make our friendship work as relationship and I don't know why it didn't work. We were so good together before we had sex."

"I know." Sam said with a sigh, "I miss you Maxie. I miss having someone to talk to, to share things with and I want us to get back to being friends if nothing else. Do you think we can?"

"I don't know, because I'm still so attracted to you." Maxie said, doing her best to avoid Sam's ample cleavage, "I don't know that I can fight that. I still don't see why sex messes that up, it should make it better, not worse. So what are we doing wrong?"

"I wish I knew, because I miss you so much. I don't mean just the sex, but you are the first friend I've had in so long and I just feel so lost without you." Sam said, stand up from her seat and holding her hand out to Maxie, "Come back to my place with me. We can talk and watch TV or whatever, but getting plastered isn't going to help us and we both know that."

Maxie looked at Sam and knew she couldn't say no, "Okay, let's go then, before we find a way to mess this up again."

**End of Chapter 2**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**HJCK Television Studios**

Amelia sat in her chair going over the schedule for her next program when her door opened and Claudia Zacchara stepped inside.

"So, this is where you work?" Claudia asked, looking around the large well decorated office.

"Yes it is." Amelia nodded, getting to her feet, walking over and closing her door, while turning to lean against it, "What's the plan?"

Claudia smiled at the tall red head, walking up to her, putting her arm around her waist and pushing breasts into Amelia's stomach, "I don't want to talk business right now, I want to enjoy this time with you like this." Claudia said, leaning up and kissing Amelia hard and deep, like she'd done so many times before, letting her hands slide up and down her curvaceous body, much to the delight of Amelia.

"We can't do this here." Amelia said, sliding away from Claudia's warm body, "I have a meeting soon and my boss is going to barge in here any second."

"That's no fun." Claudia said with a sexy pout, "I need to see you soon, so let me know when we can meet. I need to know what you've found out about Jason and Sonny and the inner working of their organization."

Amelia rolled her eyes and walked back to her desk, "I told you that I wasn't able to get that close and even if I did they aren't about to share that with anyone. Carly, who is closest to both of them, knows nothing about their mob life. I was able to get to know a couple of Sonny's bodyguards, but they aren't about to open up to me, not with the threat of death lingering over their head. I was at one of Sonny's coffee warehouses and I'm sure it's a front for something, I just don't know what. They say they don't deal in drugs, so what else could it be?"

"Just because they say that doesn't mean it's true." Claudia said, amused at Amelia's naivety, "Drugs are the backbone of most any organization. They always sell, they make for a healthy profit and they can't be traced back to anyone. I heard he ran a strip club years ago, are you sure he isn't still part owner? What about prostitution, extortion, money laundering?"

"Claudia, I'm not the FBI, I don't have that kind of power." Amelia said, explaining the same thing to Claudia for the 10th time in the last few weeks, "I can snoop around a little from the outside, but that's it. I told you this when you first asked me do your dirty work."

"I don't really like your tone right now." Claudia said, her smile fading, replaced by a much more sinister, blank stare, "You were not forced to do anything, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't act like you were."

"That's not it." Amelia sighed, "You want results that I can't possibly deliver. That's a lot of pressure, especially since you don't deal with failure well."

A smile returned to Claudia's face and she walked around Amelia's desk and stood at her feet, "Do you really think I'd harm you just because you couldn't find something on Sonny and Jason?"

Amelia nodded yes, much to the dismay of Claudia.

"Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised." Claudia said, climbing onto Amelia's lap, "I guess I haven't done a very good job of showing you how much you mean to me." Again Claudia began kissing Amelia, who quickly returned the kiss, her arms wrapped around Claudia tightly, as they kissed long and slow, savoring every second they had together.

A knock on Amelia's door caused Amelia to jump to her feet, which caused Claudia to fall right to the floor, something that amused Amelia much more than it did Claudia. After she had adjusted her clothes and make up, Amelia walked over to the door and opened it. Sure enough it was her boss, Peter Canfield, standing on the other side.

"Are you ready?" Peter asked impatiently.

"Yes, I'll be right there. I'm just gathering my things and I'll see you there." Amelia said with a big smile.

"Okay, but do not be late. This is a very important meeting and your show is on the agenda. If you can't make a case to keep in the air, you might be looking for a new job soon." Peter added bluntly before turning and heading towards the elevators.

Amelia slammed the door and turned around, "This is just great. I knew the ratings were dropping slightly, but I didn't think the show is danger. I'm going to have to get Sam back. She was a ratings hit."

Claudia shook her head the minute Sam's name was mentioned, "I don't think you should do that. I don't like the idea of you working with her again."

"Is that a hint of jealousy I'm hearing?"

Claudia walked up to Amelia and smiled, "Concern is the word I was thinking of. She left you once, that's why it won't work. You see if you had dumped her, well that would mean you were over her, but I don't think you are."

"That's silly." Amelia said, trying to believe her own words, "What we had was short and filled with distrust, lies, betrayal and it was never meant to last."

"I don't want to get all mobster on you, but I don't deal with infidelity well, so you better be sure you can handle being around her every day, because I sure don't want anything to happen to her."

"Claudia, you can't threaten everyone woman I talk to or have contact with."

"Actually I can." Claudia said with a cute little smile, but dropped it once she saw Amelia's disapproving glare, "I don't mean to be this way, but I have a real problem with cheating. My father brought in some young bimbo and my mother was devastated, I'm sure it's what killed her. I won't go through that."

"I'm sorry about your mother, but I'm not your father." Amelia said, trying to be firm and understanding at the same time, "I have a lot more self control and I can work with Sam and not be sleeping with her."

"Okay, I'm not going to make things worse, so I'm going to go and I want you to call me when you're free. I'd like us to have this night together."

"I'll call you when I'm finished here. The meeting will be over by lunch, so if all goes well I'll be out of here by 5."

"Good. I look forward to hearing for you." Claudia said, grabbing her purse, leaning in and kissing Amelia on the lips before she strutted out the door.

**Nurse's Lounge**.

Nadine and Leyla sat in the far corner of the lounge, waiting for Robin to show up and chew them out for their little performance in the shower.

"You don't think she's going to fire us do you?" Nadine asked nervously.

"No, I don't think so. I sure hope not." Leyla said as she began to grow more concerned about their fate.

Robin walked into the lounge and made her way over to the two guilty looking women, "Well, at least you aren't making out in here to. Now here's the deal, I'm giving you both a warning that if you ever do something like that again you will be fired."

"We won't. I promise." Nadine replied quickly, as Leyla nodded her agreement.

"Good, now that we have that out of the way, I want to invite you two to a party at my place next Friday. My mom is coming back to town and it's her birthday and I want to throw her an amazing party to thank her for everything she'd done for me over the years."

"We'd love to go." Leyla said, a bit confused by the quick change of mood in the room.

"Excellent." Robin said with a smile, "That's all I wanted to know. You two have a great night; just take separate showers from now on."

Nadine smiled and nodded, "Will do."

Leyla let out a sigh of relief as Robin left the room, "Well, since we still have our jobs, maybe we should do something to celebrate?"

"Aren't we supposed to meet Elizabeth tonight to go over the nurse's schedule for the month?" Nadine asked as the two girls walked towards the elevator.

"You're right, but promise me you aren't going to sit and stare at her all night, like you did last time?"

"I did not." Nadine protested, not amused by Leyla's attempts at humor at her expense, "I just happen to admire her. Raising two young boys on her own, dealing with a divorce, all that mob danger and of course her constant feuds with Maxie, Sam and Carly, it can't be easy being in her shoes."

"Okay, that's what I'm talking about." Leyla said with an annoyed glare, "Could you worship her anymore? Don't you think she has enough men and women after her?"

"I'm not after her." Nadine said, laughing at Leyla's questions, "I told you it was admiration."

"Sure." Leyla said with an eye roll, "Does her ass count in that admiration, because you admired her jeans the other day for hours."

"Stop being jealous, you know nothing is going to happen between us." Nadine groaned, walking up to her car and clicking her door open as she got close, "Can we not talk about Elizabeth anymore please?"

Leyla shrugged, put couldn't and didn't try and hide her displeasure, "It works for me, but I think it will be a little hard to do when we are spending a couple hours with her very soon."

"You'll be with me, it's not like we're going to sneak off and make out in den or anything."

"You know she has a den?" Leyla asked, not getting Nadine's sarcasm at all.

Nadine laughed as she slid into the driver's seat, clicking open the passenger seat and falling back into her seat, "Leyla, we talked about what sarcasm was. I thought the British were big on humor?"

"I didn't think it was funny." Leyla said as she put her seatbelt on, "So have you ever thought about Elizabeth when you were with me?"

"Leyla!" Nadine said, her smile quickly turning into shock and anger, "This is getting ridiculous. The answer is no, but I shouldn't have to answer that. I told you about my feelings about Elizabeth before we got together, but you need to stop bringing it up every time she's around. I' m happy with you, so please drop it."

There was a long pause before Leyla turned to face Nadine, "I'm sorry. I guess I just get insecure around her because I know how feel about her. It's hard to know that and pretend like I don't. She doesn't help either, she's such a flirt with you. It's no wonder she's always cheating on someone, she has no shortage of offers."

"If you didn't sound so damn cute when you talked, I'd be pretty angry right now." Nadine smiled, enjoying Leyla's delicious accent even when she was being unreasonable, "If Elizabeth flirts with me you have my permission to slap her."

Leyla's eyes lit up, "Really?"

"No, I was being silly again." Nadine laughed as she started the car, "You can't slap her because she's not going to flirt with anyone."

"Why can't you just say what you mean? Your humor is very confusing." Leyla said, reaching into her purse, "Can we stop for coffee on the way there?"

Nadine smiled at Leyla, "Yes, there's a Starbucks right beside her house."

**Carly's Home**.

Courtney sat back down after stretching her legs, taking time to process how much things had changed since she'd been away, "So I'm guessing you haven't been in the dating mood since Jax left?"

"No, I can't even think about that right now." Carly said with a laugh, "Now that you're back, what are your plans? You're going to have to tell Sonny, Mike, Jason and so many others that you're alive."

"I'll get to that soon, but I'd like one day just to be here with you." Courtney said, cuddling up beside Carly, "I missed you the most. I really can't say sorry enough for leaving you like this."

"It's okay." Carly said, brushing Courtney's long blonde hair away from her pretty face, "I'm just glad you're alive and here right now, because I really need you to help me get through all this."

Courtney enjoyed looking into Carly's eyes again, something she'd thought about every day she was away, "You look so beautiful right now. I forgot how much I enjoyed just looking into your eyes."

Carly sat up and inched away from Courtney, "You can't just come back and seduce me like this. It's really not the right time for that and besides, before you died you were fooling around with Sam, so what about that?"

"Ugh, why do we have to talk about the past." Courtney groaned, wishing so much that her past wouldn't keep getting in the way, "I've spent 2 years alone and here I am with my best friend and I want to do what we used to do, even when you were with Sonny and I was with Jason, we found time to take care of each other. That's all I want now. I know you want it to, your eyes never lie."

"You know that was a different time. We both needed it, but I can't do this now. I'm dealing with too much." Carly sighed, "Michael is in a coma and they keep trying to tell me he might not wake up from it. Jax left because I pushed him away one too many times. Sonny is refusing to give up custody of Morgan and you just came back from the dead, so I can't just forget all this so we can feel good for a while."

"A while, try hours and hours, that's how long we could go." Courtney said with a big smile, reminding Carly of their marathon love making sessions, "But okay, I shouldn't be pushing you like this. It's just been so long, but I'll be good girl stop trying to seduce you?"

"Thanks." Carly said, sliding back in beside Courtney, "Anyway, are you interested in Sam still?"

"I don't know, it's been so long, I don't know how anyone will react to seeing me again. It's not like we really did anything, I just thought we were getting close, but even then I think Sam's heart was somewhere else."

"You can't mean she was into Elizabeth back then?"

"I wouldn't be surprised, but she was holding something back from me. We weren't together, but we'd spent a lot time getting to know each other and I always felt she was hiding something, I just didn't know what it was."

"Sam is full of secrets. It's who she is, but I'd rather you didn't get involved her or Elizabeth for that matter."

"You still don't like them?" Courtney asked as she took a drink, "And Elizabeth and I never really got along great with. So what about these new people, Amelia and Claudia?"

"You will not be going near Claudia; she's a mobster and a crazy one at that." Carly ordered, very quick to put a kibosh on Courtney's curiosity, "Amelia gets points for wanting to destroy Sam, but I also believe there's more to her relationship with Sam than anyone knows."

"Sam is one busy girl isn't she." Courtney said with a laugh, "It looks like you're the only single girl around right now."

Carly smiled and shook her head no, "Maybe, but we agreed never to go there, so you'll have to look somewhere else."

"I guess that leaves Claudia." Courtney smiled, knowing it would annoy Carly to no end.

Shaking her head and smiling back at Courtney, Carly grabbed a pillow from the sofa and reached over and smacked her hands as she put them up in front of her. Carly climbed on top of her and continued to playfully tap Courtney with the pillow, until Courtney decided to grab the pillow, spinning Carly around and climbing on top of her, "Well, I always did like this position."

"Very funny." Carly said, trying her best to push Courtney off of her.

Courtney finally slid off on her own and crawled in beside Carly on the floor, "I think I'm going to go have a cold shower. I'm finding it hard to keep my hands off you right now, so I better go before you slap them."

Carly got to her feet, hugged Courtney again and watched her walk down the hall to the spare bedroom. She sat back down on the sofa and began imagining what would've happened had she not turned Courtney down.

**End of Chapter 3**.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4.**

**Metro Court Hotel**.

Amelia sat at the bar, sipping her water as she waited for Claudia to arrive. She checked her hair and makeup for the 5th time just as Claudia stepped in front of her.

Claudia looked stunning in a sexy white dress, cut just above her knees, with just a hint of cleavage as it clung to her extremely fit body like glue. She looked Amelia over with an appreciative smile, enjoying her long legs that seemed to go on forever, finally being covered by a very short black dress, with a plunging neckline that showed off Amelia's ample cleavage.

"You look beautiful." Claudia said as she continued to enjoy the view.

"So do you. You look downright angelic in that dress." Amelia said as she stepped off her stool and followed Claudia to a table near the back of the room, sitting down opposite her, "Well, here we are."

"I made a couple phone calls today and learned that Sonny is actually considering getting out of the mob."

"You told me that wasn't possible."

"It's not, but Sonny tried it once before and I guess with what happened to Michael he's letting his emotions control him." Claudia said, calmly explaining Sonny's actions, "Nobody will ever believe he's out. Even if Jason gets control, they will assume Sonny is pulling strings behind the scenes. I think it's too late for him to get the peace he wants and sadly for him, his family will always be a possible target."

"I thought you said that mobsters didn't go after family, because they all have family." Amelia said, her head spinning as she tried to make sense of everything.

"Yes, it's an unwritten rule, but it's easily ignored when a takeover is attempted." Claudia added, spotting Jason walking into the hotel as she continued, "Not all mobsters have families, so those who don't, don't have to play by the same rules."

Jason walked right up to Claudia, ignored Amelia and got out his best tough guy stare for her, "I know you've been snooping around our business and I'm here to warn you to back off."

"Are you now?" Claudia said with a smirk, "What is it you 're so worked up about?"

"We had a shipment intercepted last night and all signs point to you. I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt, but maybe Sonny was right, killing you and your family might be the only way to preserve peace."

"Is that a threat, because it's hard to tell with you." Claudia smiled, taking a sip of wine as she watched Jason continue to glare at her, "You need to realize that my father is still a threat to you and everyone else around him. He would like nothing more than to start a war and watch his children get caught in the crossfire."

"I don't care which Zacchara is responsible, I want that shipment back or I'm going to have to retaliate and you should know, that your brother Johnny will be the target."

Claudia jumped to her feet and 4 men surrounded Jason in a flash, "That was a very big mistake. You can kill my dad, I'll give you the bullets, but if you even go near Johnny not only will you be dead, but everyone you hold dear to you will die first. That includes the baby you are passing off as Lucky's, Elizabeth, Carly, her kids and I'd add Monica to the list, but I just don't think you'd care if she died."

Jason struggled to get free, but was helpless against the four much larger men, "Don't threaten me."

"Hmm, I believe you just did that to me, so as they say, all's fair in love and war." Claudia said with a smile, gulping down the last of her wine, "For your information, I didn't take the shipment, so next time get your facts straight or you won't leave alive."

After motioning for her men to let Jason go, Claudia sat back down and turned her attention to Amelia, "I don't know about you, but I'm in the mood for a nice long bath and then a night of wild sex, are you in?"

Amelia nodded and smiled, taking Claudia's hand and running out of the hotel in record time.

Left with nobody to glare at, Jason left the hotel, unhappy that Amelia had hooked up with his enemy.

**Luke's yacht.**

Elizabeth Webber walked up on the large yacht, called out Lulu's name a couple times and almost had a heart attack when Luke tapped her on the shoulder from behind. She jumped backwards, almost knocking him down, finally gathering herself enough to make sure he was okay, "I'm so sorry Luke. I don't know why I reacted like that."

"It's okay. I'm fine." Luke said with a smile, mostly because he didn't drop one bit of his drink, "I was hoping to talk to you, so I'm glad you're here."

"What did you want to talk to me about?" Elizabeth asked, not sure she wanted to hear the answer.

Luke walked over behind the bar, put his glass down and shook his head at Elizabeth, "Lulu told me about what happened with you two last night and she's pretty upset and I can't say I blame her."

Seeing and hearing Luke's disappointment in her hurt as much as if it were Audrey upset with her, "I don't blame her either. That's why I'm here. I need to make this right."

"I like you Elizabeth. In spite of the fact I don't agree with some of the decisions made, I felt you were very good for Lulu. From the moment you two started seeing each other I noticed a change in her. She seemed more confident and secure with herself. She seemed happy for the first time in I don't know how long. But, I have to wonder if this isn't the end of her happiness."

"No, it's not." Elizabeth protested, knowing she had very little to help make her case to Luke, "I'm not sure how much she told you, but I kissed Sam right here on the yacht at your party a couple months ago. As I explained to Lulu, this was instigated by Sam, not by me. I regret not pushing her away more than you know, but it's over. I want to be with your daughter more than anything. Sam is the past, Lulu is my future."

"I wish I could believe you, but as you probably know I'm very connected in city and when I need to find out something, there's nothing that will get in the way." Luke said, looking a bit too serious for Elizabeth's tastes, "I did a little checking into your past and I found that Sam isn't the only woman you've kissed since you started seeing Lulu. I can forgive one mistake, we're all entitled, but I think two is one too many. Now, as a courtesy, since I do care about you, I'm going to let explain about this second kiss."

Elizabeth's already pale face became corpse pale as soon she heard Luke mention the second kiss, "I don't know what to say. Nothing is going to justify what I did. With Sam there was a history, we had tried to become friends and then she wanted it to be more and she was trying convince me with her lips that we could be together, but with Maxie it was just anger turned into passion and I think we both regretted it as soon as it ended."

Luke studied Elizabeth closely, feeling her pain as she struggled to keep from breaking down completely, "I have to ask this and you don't have to answer because you don't owe me anything, but do you still have feelings for Sam McCall?"

"I care about her." Elizabeth said, knowing that would be the most honest answer she could give, "I was happy we were moving in a positive direction, but I didn't think it was possible to get past some of things she'd done to me and well to Jake, but we managed and maybe a part of me wanted to try it with her, but fear held me back. I'm not making any sense, but I don't think Sam is the reason Lulu and I are having problems."

"What do you think the reason is?"

Elizabeth continued to move around the large room, "I think she feels guilty being with me. Every time she sees Lucky she almost breaks down. She thinks she's betraying him somehow, even though Lucky and I were divorced before we got involved. I don't think she'll ever feel comfortable with me when guilt is making her so miserable."

Luke nodded, finally feeling like he was beginning to understand things a bit more, "She mentioned that last night actually, but I tried to tell her that Lucky is fine with you two. It took a while but he's happy for Lulu. I guess she doesn't want to believe that or can't believe it."

"I know I've made a lot of mistakes in my life, but I really thought Lulu and I were on the right track." Elizabeth said, wanting so much to believe it, "Deep down, I knew something was bothering her. We talked about Lucky many times and she tried to act like it was nothing, but I could tell it was affecting her relationship with him. She didn't even want to see him, because the guilt just ate away at her."

"If that's the case I don't know how you two are going to get past this."

"Maybe she'd be better off with someone else."

Lulu walked into the room and pushed a chair off one of the tables to get everyone's attention, "So, you are deciding my life without me. Why am I not surprised."

Elizabeth rushed over to Lulu, "That's not it at all. Before we get into this, I think you should know that I also kissed Maxie when we were together."

"What?" Lulu said, not wanting to believe what she'd just heard.

"It was before the Sam kiss." Elizabeth said, moving towards Lulu in an attempt to explain things, "I went to Kate's office to look for you and you were off doing something and Maxie was there and she had just broken up with Sam and we started talking and at first I was trying to make her feel better, but she was angry and wanted no part of that. So it soon turned into a fight like always and in the middle she just broke down in tears and I felt bad and I think I gave her a hug and she finally smiled at me and I don't know why I kissed her, but I did and we kissed for way longer we should've and stopped just before you came into the room."

"OMG." Lulu said as tears began to stream down her face, "Sam I could understand, but Maxie? That's just so wrong. You hate her and you know I hate her. You're such a slut. I can never trust you again. We are over. Now get out."

"Lulu, you're upset, you can't make a decision like that." Elizabeth said, trying to reason with her, which was probably not a good idea at the time, "I'm going, but I will call you later. Please just remember the good times we had. This kiss meant nothing."

"I said get out." Lulu said, giving Elizabeth a push towards the door, "Don't call me. Call Sam."

Elizabeth knew it wasn't the time to argue, so she walked towards the door and left the yacht.

Lulu rushed over to her dad and found a small comfort in his arms, but nothing eased the pain of her broken heart.

** Sam's Home**.

Maxie let out a loud moan, her body shaking the whole bed as Sam crawled up from between her legs, kissing her way up her stomach, finishing with a soft kiss on the lips. It took Maxie a long time to catch her breath, but the smile on her face showed how happy she was, "Well, that was amazing as always. You really outdid yourself this time."

Sam kissed Maxie again and again, before rolling onto her side, "I think it just shows how good we are together. I missed this so much. I think you did to."

"Yes, this part was always good." Maxie nodded, smiling down at the pretty brunette beside her, "I don't want to ruin the mood, but I really need to know what you see happening with us?"

"Oh Maxie, let's not even think of that." Sam said, leaning in and kissing the cute blonde again, this time much harder and deeper, wanting to enjoy the moment just a little longer before reality changed everything.

Maxie held Sam close, her hands wandering up and down her near perfect body, but as much as she wanted to enjoy things, her mind just wouldn't let her and she sat up in the bed, "I'm sorry, but I can't stop thinking of you and Elizabeth. I need to know if you want her."

"This is not the time for that." Sam said, trying to stay positive in spite of Maxie's bothersome questions, "Elizabeth is with Lulu and you and I are here, now, enjoying each other in the best possible way. It's still so early, I don't want to stop now, I want to kiss you all over, I want to make you scream with pleasure and you know I can, so please just get Elizabeth out of your head and get back down here and kiss me."

"Do you think that's going to change anything?" Maxie said with a shrug, "Well?"

"Oh god." Sam sighed, rolling over onto her other side, "Well, if you don't want to enjoy the night that's fine, but I'm not talking about this now. I think I'll have a shower and go find something to do."

"Sam. Sam." Maxie yelled to no avail as Sam ignored her and walked into the bathroom. Annoyed, yet still highly aroused, Maxie followed Sam into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her, "Okay, you win. No more talk of Elizabeth, but can I get you to agree to do it in the morning?"

"Why you want to ruin this perfect time I don't know, but if that's what it takes to get your mind focused on the fun we're going to have tonight, then fine, we can talk about relationship nonsense in the morning, but for now," Sam said with a sexy smile, holding out her hand to Maxie, "You are coming into the shower with me and we can continue where we left off."

Maxie nodded and took Sam's hand and the two of them hopped into the shower and were kissing passionately the second their feet hit solid ground.

**Carly's Home**.

Courtney waited for Carly to check on Morgan and took the time to reach into her suitcase, pull out her cell phone and hit the first number on her list. She waited through about 5 rings before someone answered, "I need to see you now. Meet me on docks in 30 minutes." She closed her cell phone and slid it into her tight white pants just before Carly walked into the room.

"Did I hear voices?"

"Actually you did." Courtney said with a smile, "I need to see Sonny and I might as well get it out of the way now. Wish me luck, because you know he's not going to like this one bit."

"I know, but he'll be happy you're alive and eventually that will sink in and he'll stop yelling, for a while." Carly said with a laugh, giving Courtney a hug and a wave as she left the house.

Carly grabbed her own cell phone and placed a call to Sonny, "I need to talk to you about Courtney. You better be nice to her when she comes over there. She's been through a lot these last two years."

Sonny stared into the phone like Carly was insane, "What the hell are you talking about? Courtney is dead. Have you lost your mind?"

Realizing her blunder, Carly knew she had no choice but to tell Sonny the truth, so she proceeded to tell him what Courtney had been through in the last two years, waiting patiently for him to say something when she was done.

"Sonny? Are you there? Did you hear anything I said?"

"Yes. I don't know what to say, I can't believe she couldn't have told her family about this. Something isn't right here. I have to go." Sonny said, hanging up the phone before Carly could respond.

Carly growled and slammed her cell phone onto the sofa, wondering why she even bothered giving Sonny a head's up. Just as quickly she began to wonder who Courtney was talking to and why she lied about it.

**Elizabeth's Home**.

Leyla and Nadine arrived at Elizabeth's house, coffee in hand, ringing her doorbell and chatting as they wanted for Elizabeth to answer.

Elizabeth opened the door, welcomed them inside and led them into her kitchen, "I'm glad you made it. I've been working on a new schedule and I'd like your input. I've tried to set things up so everyone has a balanced schedule, with ample time off to catch up on the rest we always seem to miss with all the overtime we put in. Why don't you have a look and let me know what you think."

The two women looked over the schedule Elizabeth had created, but before they could say anything the doorbell rang again.

Jason didn't wait for Elizabeth to open the door, deciding it would be okay to just walk inside, surprising Elizabeth as well as Leyla and Nadine, "I need to talk to you now."

"I'm in the middle of a meeting." Elizabeth said, more than a little annoyed at Jason's unusually rude behaviour.

"Have you had any contact with Claudia Zacchara?" Jason asked, focused only on Elizabeth's response.

"I don't think so." Elizabeth said softly, very aware of Leyla and Nadine's eyes on her, "I might've seen her talking to her brother once or twice, since they have been at the hospital checking on their father, but that's about it."

"She's becoming more of a threat than we anticipated and I'm not sure Jake is safe here anymore."

Elizabeth smiled at her two guests and then walked outside with Jason, "What? You said there was a truce. You said we'd be safe and you'd make sure of that. What's changed?"

"It's just business, but the Zacchara's have merged with another large organization and are getting ready to take over our territory. If they succeed you'll be fine, Sonny and I will be eliminated and they'll have no need to go after you, but if by chance we hold them off, you, Jake, Cameron and even Lulu are in serious danger."

"This was not supposed to happen." Elizabeth said, visibly angry at the situation, "I will not have Jake and Cameron growing up in fear their whole lives. Are you saying the only way we are safe is if you and Sonny die?"

"Yes." Jason said bluntly and with little emotion, "Sonny and I have been preparing for this day for a long time. We always knew there would come a time when a really large organization came in and took us out, but we thought by then we might be able to put up a bigger fight, but things have changed recently and if we can't keep the peace with Claudia and her family, they are going to eliminate us."

"Can't you join them or something?" Elizabeth asked, thinking she had come up with a solution, "Why not be part of a bigger organization? Maybe you'd actually have some free time or be able to enjoy life rather than just living that sad existence of being Sonny's hired help."

"Believe it or not we have talked about that, but Sonny isn't about to go from running an organization to taking orders." Jason added in his usual monotone style, "He feels he can leave the organization and he wants me take over, but I'm not sure I want to work for Claudia Zacchara or her family."

"You don't really a choice, it's either that or they kill you." Elizabeth explained what seemed like the obvious, "Even you can't want to die? Do you?"

"It's not that simple." Jason said, wishing he wasn't having this conversation, "I'd just feel better if you and the kids were somewhere safe until this sorts itself out."

"And then what? If you die what are we going to do then, be stuck on some island forever?"

"Why do you have to argue about this?" Jason asked, his temper showing for the first time in a long time around Elizabeth, "I know it's your choice, I'm so aware of how many times I've said that to people in my life, but it usually ends up with someone getting hurt or killed."

"That's too bad, because that's been your motto forever, so live with it." Elizabeth snapped right back, "In this case it's true, I have a choice and I choose not to leave. If I have to, I'll talk to Lucky or Mac and get them to protect me, but I'm done doing things your way, they never seem to work out for me."

"I wish you would reconsider, but I need to go." Jason said, accepting the fact he had no more control over Elizabeth. He stopped at the end of the steps, "Just be careful and stay away from Claudia and her family."

Elizabeth didn't reply, she just turned and walked back inside, closing the door and composing herself before she went back into her guests.

**End of Chapter 4**.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**.

**The Docks. Pier 42. **

Courtney stood at the end of the pier, hand on her gun and eyes looking every which she could. Finally, someone stepped out of the shadows and made their way towards her, but as the moved closer Courtney began to relax and walked towards them, "I'm glad you make it on such short notice."

Anna Devane smiled at Courtney and handed her a thick folder, "This is the latest information on Corinthos and the Zacchara organizations. It seems like Sonny's luck is coming to an end here in Port Charles."

"I know and I've tried to keep my emotions out of this, but I did spend 5 years pretending to be his sister, I was hoping he'd do what he kept talking about and leave the mob for good."

"Well, you need to let that go, because you are here to put an end to the mob in Port Charles." Anna said, trying to get Courtney to refocus, "As much as you might want to, you cannot tell Sonny the truth and that goes for Carly and anyone else you had contact with in Port Charles. As far as they know you are Courtney Matthews and that isn't going to change until Anthony Zacchara and or Sonny and Jason are dead or in jail.

"After this, I'm out." Courtney said, catching Anna off guard by her bold admission.

"What? I thought you enjoyed this?" Anna asked, trying to get a read on Courtney's eyes, "You just spent two years taking down a major crime boss in Philadelphia. I've never seen you so happy. What am I missing?"

"It's Carly, as soon as I saw her again all these feelings came flooding back. Of time lost, opportunities lost. She is going through this horrible ordeal with Michael and she's alone. I know she probably pushed Jax away, but I still feel so horrible that I wasn't here for her."

"I think you need to take some time and think about this first. You do so much good with this job, you need to remember that. The world is a better place when we are putting criminals behind bars." Anna said, doing her best to give Courtney the full picture, "Do you remember that young girl you saved in Philly? The one who was being forced into selling her body at that age? She would still be doing it if we didn't put her bosses away. The mother of that young boy who was shot in a drive-by shooting was so grateful that she had closure to such a horrible tragedy. Please, remember the good you do before you make any hasty decisions."

Courtney managed a smile and let out a happy sigh, "Okay, I'll think about it, but it's getting a lot harder to go to bed alone each night. The people I'm working to put away don't count. That's one of the worst parts of this job. I'd like to have real relationship for a change."

Anna couldn't help but smile, "Well, we never had a real relationship, but we certainly helped each other through many lonely nights together. It sure beats the alternative."

"I know and I loved every minute of it, but we knew it wasn't serious, right?" Courtney said with a grin, remembering back to her passionate nights with Anna.

"Yes, I know you still have feelings for Carly and I wouldn't dream of getting in the way of that."

"Are you okay with that?" Courtney asked, sensing a change in Anna's demeanour, "You don't have feelings for me do you?"

Anna quickly turned to the side, getting out her notebook, "We need to concentrate on the job right now."

Courtney grabbed Anna's arm and pulled her in close, "Anna, I need to know. I have been living under the impression you were not the least bit interested in another relationship of any kind. Why does it feel like that's changed?

"Nothing can change. We can't get involved. Not emotionally, not like that." Anna said, avoiding contact with the attractive blonde, "It's already getting hard for me to send you out there with all those dangerous criminals, but love makes us careless and that is when mistakes happen and a mistake in our line of work means death and I don't want that for you."

Courtney lifted Anna's chin up, "It doesn't have to be this way. I've told you before, we could quit and have a real life. You don't have to do this forever."

"That's such a wonderful thought, but I think you are better off with Carly. I think that's where your heart is. We bonded in the most dangerous situations one can imagine, but that's not the same as the 5 years you spent with Carly. "Anna again attempted to change the topic, "We need to get moving on Anthony. I got word that he may have signed over his whole organization to his two kids. If that's the case, our targets may have just changed."

A noise on the docks got the two women's attention in a hurry, with both of them jumping into the water as fast as they could, swimming up close to the docks to see what made the noise. Two men stepped out of the shadows.

"This better be important." Trevor said as he held the gun inside his pocket tightly.

"You were wrong about Anthony." Logan angrily pointed out, "He did sign the organization over to his kids and you aren't part of it. Nowhere in the contract are you mentioned. So, our agreement is terminated. I can't believe I trusted you."

"That's not possible. I just talked to him yesterday." Trevor said, his face filled with shock, rage and confusion, "Why would he change his mind so fast? What aren't you telling me?"

"He's dying." Logan yelled, "He has an inoperable brain tumor. They give him 2 months, 3 tops. He just seemed to deflate. He lost his fight. He seems destined to make things right with his brother, so that's what he's doing, he's on his way to Florida, but I'm out of job."

Trevor began to walk around the dock in a state of disbelief, half laughing and half disgusted, "We need to do something. If Claudia has control of this organization I'll never get in and if Johnny 's in control you'll never get in, so we better to do some thinking here and fast."

"What's there to think about? Anthony was my only hope." Logan said calmly, "I'm not that invested in this to worry about it. It's time I moved on with my life anyway."

"Not so fast junior." Trevor said, pulling out his gun, "Our deal is over when I say it's over. Now I suggest you find Claudia and get her into bed and worm your way into her heart and take care of this from the inside."

"Are you insane?" Logan asked with a laugh, "Last I checked she was spending most of her time with that Amelia woman and from what we've learned, she only slept with Corinthos to get in his head, so I'm not so sure I have much of a chance with her."

"Oh don't give up so easily. If she's been with a man once, she'll do it again." Trevor said, actually believing his own gibberish, "Now, you're young, good looking, have already found a way into Lulu and Maxie's bed, so you better find a way into Claudia's life, one way or the other, or you won't have a life to worry about."

"It's not that easy." Logan explained, "Maxie set up the whole thing with us. She wanted Lulu to pay and I just went along with it, but she didn't care about me, so if she wasn't looking to get Lulu back, we never would've hooked up."

"Spare me the sob stories, just do your job." Trevor groaned, rolling his eyes at Logan, "I didn't spend the last 25 years of my life working my way into Anthony's organization to be left out in the cold by his two spoiled children."

"I'll try, but if you threaten me again you are going to end up dead, because I have nothing to lose or live for, so don't push your luck." Logan said, pushing Trevor's gun downward and walking past him, never once looking back.

Trevor mumbled his displeasure to himself and then took off in the opposite direction.

Courtney and Anna hopped back up on the docks, shaking the water from their hair and clothes. Anna pulled out her cell phone, "I need someone to pick up a target. Logan Hayes is the name. I want him removed from the field ASAP. Keep him out of sight until the mission is complete."

"Why'd you do you that?" Courtney asked, still removing pieces of kelp from her clothes.

"Because you're taking his place." Anna said with a smile, "Trevor had the right idea, but the wrong person for the job. You are going to get close to Claudia and her family. If we can't take down Anthony, they are next in line."

"I don't know about that." Courtney said with a questioning smile, "Claudia is going to assume I'm Sonny's sister and she'll never trust me."

Anna shrugged her shoulders and shook her head, "From our information, Claudia's only weak spot is pretty women, so I'm sure you can convince her that Sonny means nothing to you and that he made his bed and can lie in it, while you lie in hers."

"Very funny." Courtney said with a mock laugh, "If I get mixed up with Claudia it's going to ruin any chance I have of making things right with Carly. She won't accept that. Not because of Sonny so much, but because of Jason. That's betrayal to her."

"I know, but if you think she's going to accept things any better when you tell her you're not really Sonny's sister and that was all a lie, you are not thinking clearly. In many ways, the best way for her to stay safe is to be an enemy, not a friend."

"This is when the job isn't worth it." Courtney groaned, wondering if she'd ever have a chance to have an actual love life, "She might be my only chance at happiness and I have to give it up to put away another mobster."

Anna ignored Courtney's disappointment, knowing she couldn't fix it right now, "You need to go back to Carly's, pack your things and find a place of your own, because you can't stay there."

"Once she finds out I lied about going to see Sonny she won't want me there anyway." Courtney said with disappointed sigh, "Well, I'm off to get dried off and then I'll tell Carly I'm leaving. I'll talk to you later."

**Sam's apartment**.

Maxie woke up to find an empty bed next to her, which wasn't a huge shock as Sam had always been a restless sleeper. She slid out of bed and walked down the hall, stopping when she heard voices.

"I told you I don't want to work with you anymore." Sam said point blank so there was no misunderstanding.

"Sam, would you please just hear me out." Amelia said in her most conciliatory voice, "I know you have every reason to hate me, although I find that a little hard to understand considering you were able to get past this anger and hatred when we were together."

"That was a mistake." Sam said, hating that she had no explanation for it, "I was upset that Jason had just shut me out of his life, actually threatened my life and I needed someone and that happened to be you, but it doesn't change anything. You still tried to ruin my life."

Amelia followed Sam into the living room, stopping right behind the short sexy brunette, "I have apologized for that. You have to see that it was hard to think clearly when all I knew was that you killed my father. If he was threatening your life it's still hard to accept that you had to kill him, but I'm still trying to be fair here."

"Are you? Did you read any of the information I sent you about your father and his well documented temper?" Sam asked, happy to be on the offensive for once, "The fact that he'd been arrested not once, not twice, but three times for assaulting women, including your mother? I know it must suck to hear that about your father, but it shows that I was not the only woman he ever hurt."

"I know. I know." Amelia yelled, turning away from Sam, "I am going to apologize again, but then I need you to hear me out. I'm sorry I tried to ruin your life, but I need you back at the station."

"You need me?" Sam said with a laugh, "Ratings not high enough?"

"No, they aren't and I've decided to put Everyday Heroes back on the air and you are my first choice as the lead. It's still a very good opportunity and I've been authorized to offer you a 10% raise from your previous salary, all for 22 episodes.

"I don't know. I'm not sure I want to do that anymore. I don't even know if I helped anyone with that show."

"Are you kidding? You saw the mail we got." Amelia said, quick to point out Sam was wrong, "It was our most popular show and I'm lucky I didn't get fired when you left it."

"Yes, that is awful." Sam said sarcastically, turning to walk into the kitchen when she spotted Maxie at the end of the hall, "How long have you been there?"

"Long enough." Maxie said, stepping out into the living room to have a closer look at the tall beautiful redhead talking to Sam, "So, you slept with Sam to?"

"Maxie." Sam yelled, walking back into the room and getting between her and Amelia, "Could you please wait in the bedroom for a few minutes while I discuss Amelia's job offer."

"Why? Is it a secret?"

"No, but…"

Maxie was quick to interrupt, "Then there is no reason for me to leave." She said, turning her attention to Amelia again, "You tried to ruin Sam and then end up sleeping with her? That's either really sad or really pathetic, I'm not sure which."

Amelia smiled as she stepped towards the tiny blonde, "I'm sure it's hard for you to understand, but in spite of our differences, Sam and I were able to work together and we had developed a close relationship before things got out of hand. I think on some level I always knew she was telling the truth about my father and that's why I was able to care about her at all."

"That's sweet, but why are you here now?" Maxie asked bluntly, "Are you after Sam, because I should warn you, she's only interested in one woman and she is short, beautiful and has long dark hair, so you might as well give up now."

"Maxie, that's enough." Sam yelled again, grabbing Maxie by the arm and pulling her down the hall, into her bedroom before releasing her, "What's got into you?"

"Nothing." Maxie said calmly, searching the floor for her clothes, "I just thought she should know where your heart is, in case she was interested in starting up again."

"What are you doing? Are you leaving?" Sam said as she watched Maxie pick up her clothes from all over the room, "You said you wanted to talk about us."

Maxie slid on her tight jeans and laughed at Sam, "Well, I did want to talk, but now I don't. I know we weren't together when you had sex with Amelia, but you never mentioned it me and I did ask about your previous relationships. After watching you two just now, I still feel an attraction between you, so I think we both need a break for now."

"I see, so you are deciding this based on your feeling that I must want to sleep with Amelia since she's here?"

"She's just part of it, but Elizabeth will always be the reason we can never work." Maxie replied, positive she was right.

"I'm so sick of you bringing her up every time something goes wrong. She's your excuse not to try, not mine." Sam snapped, knowing was right about that.

"That's ridiculous." Maxie said. Scoffing at Sam's suggestion, "I can't do this. Every couple weeks I find out a new secret about you and none have been good ones. Look, I don't want us to get to the point where we hate each other." Maxie slipped on her top and let out a deep sigh, "Anyway, I do hope you take the job she's offering, because I know how much you loved it. You did help people and if you can work with her again, then I say go for it."

"It doesn't have to be like this. I do not want Amelia. That's the past. Elizabeth isn't anything, she's not the past or the present. God, what makes you so sure I want her anyway? What did I ever do to make you think this?"

"I don't want to get into it." Maxie said with a hint of annoyance, "I need to get to work. Kate has something special she wants to talk to me about, so I have to go. I'm sorry if I was out of line, but I'm going to be staying at my dad's tonight."

"Fine." Sam said, turning and walking back into the living room where Amelia was still standing, "I accept your offer. I will come back to work on the show. Just let me know when you are ready to start if up."

"Great. You aren't going to regret this." Amelia said excitedly, "I think we can have things set up within two weeks, so I'll keep you up to date the progress."

Sam nodded and walked Amelia to the door just as Maxie walked out. Sam couldn't help wonder what they would talk about as they walked towards the elevator together.

Maxie looked up at the tall redhead, pondered saying something, but chose not to. Amelia smiled down at Maxie, "So you and Sam are together?"

"Were together." Maxie clarified quickly, looking over the tall redhead before turning and grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge, "We've been apart for a couple months and we kind of hooked up again last night, but we agreed it was best if we stopped seeing each other."

"I hope it wasn't because of me."

Maxie smiled and looked up at Amelia, "No, it's complicated. We work great as friends and we are amazing as lovers, but we never seemed to be able to do both at the same time."

"Well, I'm sorry to hear that." Amelia said, happy to have that piece of information, "I hear you are working with Kate Howard, how are you liking that?"

Maxie couldn't help but light up at the mention of the one good thing in her life, "I love it. I've been into fashion since I was old enough to remember. I just know it is the most fun I've had working in my life."

"That's more than most of us can say." Amelia said with a laugh as the elevator doors opened. They both stepped inside and Amelia hit the ground floor button and waited quietly as they were taken downwards.

**End of Chapter 5**.

**Feedback is welcome and appreciated. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**.

**Carly's home**.

Courtney walked inside and was met with an angry glare, one she'd seen so many times over the years and it meant Carly was on the warpath, "I know you are probably angry right now, but I can explain why I didn't go see Sonny."

"I'm sure you can. It seems you have a lot of experience lying now. You can do it without blinking. That's one hell of a skill to have." Carly snapped as she prepared for yet another one of her classic fights.

"There are things going on that I can't tell you about and I hate that, but if you trust me, you'll know that I am not lying to hurt you. I know that's probably not much consolation right now, but it's vital that you know this."

"I don't know what to believe anymore. Who were you talking to before you left and where did you go?"

"I can't tell you." Courtney said, hating what she had to say.

"More like won't tell me. Who is it? Are you seeing someone, is that it?"

"No." Courtney replied in a flash, "It's not about that. I hope to be able to tell you everything one day, but I have to do something before that can ever happen. It means I have to move out and be on my own for a while."

"What? You just got back from being dead and now you are leaving again?"

"I'm not leaving Port Charles." Courtney answered instantly, "I just need some space to work some things out. You may see me doing some things that you will not like, but I need you to trust me. Not everything is what it seems."

"What the hell does that mean? Stop playing games and tell me what's going on or we're done."

"Carly you don't mean that." Courtney said, smiling at Carly's hair trigger temper, "As frustrating as this is for you, I want you to know one thing and I need you to remember it always. I love you and no matter what happens that is not going to change."

"You can't just say that and think it makes everything alright. That's Sonny's trick. Well, he was wrong and so are you. I'm tired of it. I don't need secrets in my life. I know I've kept my share, but I think I'm finally learning that they only end up hurting people, usually me."

"I have to go. I'm going to hope that there's a place in your heart that will understand why I have to do this." Courtney picked up her bags and attempted to give Carly a hug, but she pulled away, refusing to watch as Courtney walked out of her life, again.

**Kate Howard's Office**.

Maxie and Lulu sat at their desks, both anxiously awaiting Kate's arrival, wondering what her big announcement was going to be. Luckily for them, Kate was right on time and walked in between the two desks, "Well, I'm glad you are both here because I have a decision to make and I was hoping you'd help me."

Maxie jumped out of her seat and rushed towards Kate, "Of course. Whatever you need."

Lulu followed, nodding her willingness to help.

"Well, as you both know I have been having some difficulty with a client in Paris. I feel the only way to work this out is to talk to him face to face. Now, I need someone with me to help with the presentation, so I can either take one of you and have the other one be miserable or take you both and hope you are mature enough to act like adults on this trip. Can you work together and not make me wish I never hired you?"

"Yes, we can work together. I swear. If we put our minds to it we can do anything." Maxie declared boldly, "When we needed to get that Henderson proposal ready, we worked amazingly well together, so I think we are getting to the point where we are past the petty bickering, right Lulu?

"She's right." Lulu said, quick to reaffirm Maxie's words, "All that bickering really is in the past. We are ready to move on and work as a team and we will not make you regret this."

"I like you two. I really do." Kate said as she stared at her two attractive employees, "I think you both bring something different and special to this job and I want to believe you are ready to move forward. Don't make the mistake of thinking I'll overlook more childish behaviour, because I won't. There's no place for that in this office or anywhere you are representing me. If you want to waste your life arguing on your own time, be my guest, but this trip is very important and how you behave on it will determine your fates."

"I promise we'll be perfect angels." Maxie said, smiling as she looked at Lulu.

"We won't let you down. I promise." Lulu added with a smile of her own.

"Good. I've already booked us a flight for tonight." Kate said, happy her two bickering employees were ready to make nice, "So you need to go home and pack enough for four days. We will have a meeting tomorrow night when we arrive, then we will have two days to enjoy the city and then we will fly back and if all goes well, I think there's a lot of hope for you two and for us as a team."

"Thank you so much Kate. I can't wait to see Paris." Maxie said, her excitement and enthusiasm contagious as Lulu could not stop smiling and both girls took off like a flash towards the elevator anxious to get home and pack for their first trip to Paris.

**The Zacchara Estate**.

Courtney drove up to the Zacchara estate, put her gun in a hidden container under her seat, pulled up to the main gate, stopping at speaker phone, where she pushed the button and waited.

"Who's there?" A male voice asked.

"My name is Courtney and I'm looking for Claudia Zacchara."

There was a pause for a minute or two and then the gate began to open and Courtney drove up the long drive way, parking just to the right of two other cars. She stepped out of the car and walked up to the front door, where she was met by Johnny.

He had a gun in his hand and pulled Courtney inside, holding the gun up to her head, "You are either stupid or you have a death wish, so why is Sonny's supposedly dead sister doing at his enemies house?"

Courtney smiled at Johnny, turned slowly to face him and as he smiled back at her she reached out, grabbed his wrist, spun around, kicked his feet out from under him. As he looked up from the ground she gave him a swift kick to the side of the head, pulled the gun from his hand and stood over him, "You really shouldn't play with guns."

As she said the words she heard a clapping noise coming from behind her. She again spun around and aimed the gun at Claudia who had been watching the whole thing, "Your brother could use some manners."

"I know. I keep telling him that." Claudia said with a smile, stepping up in front of Courtney, "I can see you aren't dead, but that doesn't really explain why. While you're at it, my brother did have a point, why is Sonny's sister doing at my place?"

"If you have some time I'd love to explain to you. Are you free for dinner?" Courtney asked, happy to put off the third degree.

Claudia smiled at Courtney's invitation, "Well, I have a couple things I have to take care first, but I can probably make it for a late dinner. How about I give you a call in a couple hours?"

"That would be great, but before I go, I'm actually here for another reason." Courtney said, flashing her beautiful smile, "I heard you were going to be renting out your father's wing of this beautiful estate here, I'd love be your tenant, if you're willing to have me."

"Well that sounds tempting, but I will have to talk it over with my brother first, but I like your chances." Claudia said, escorting Courtney to the front door, "I look forward to dinner."

"So do I." Courtney said with a smile, walking slowly towards her car knowing Claudia was enjoying the view of her tight jeans almost as much as she enjoyed Claudia's eyes on her.

**General Hospital.**

Sam walked up the steps to Elizabeth's home, turned around twice, but finally made it to the front door, pushing the doorbell and waited nervously for Elizabeth to answer, when she did, she got right to it, "We need to talk."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, but couldn't help but laugh at Sam's insistence on making her life difficult, "What is it this time?"

"Aren't we in a good mood?" Sam said with a hint of a smile, "I just want us to get back to talking again. No pressure. We made some progress over the last year and I wish things could go back to that. I know you are with Lulu and I really do want you to be happy, but I'd still like to be friends if that's possible."

"I don't know." Elizabeth said with a deep sigh, "I don't think Lulu is going to want to see my face anymore, now that she knows about our kiss on her dad's yacht."

"I didn't tell her anything." Sam said, making sure Elizabeth knew the truth.

Elizabeth nodded, "I know, but I had to do it. She deserved to know and now I think I might've ended things for us."

"No, she's probably just angry, she'll get over it. You two were so happy, I can't imagine this coming between you."

"It's not just that, she's got her own issues." Elizabeth said, walking into the living room and turning to face Sam, "Guilt about being with her brother's ex wife for one. She hasn't been able to work through that, no matter who tells her it's okay. I've felt like things were slowly slipping away for the last few weeks. I think this just gave her the reason she needed to move on."

"That doesn't sound like Lulu. She fights for what she wants."

"Yes she does, but I think this might be want she wants. I don't blame her, it was strange for me being with my ex's sister, but I tried to get past that, but it was awkward any time Lucky came by to see the kids. He never said a bad thing about us being together, but I don't think he ever really approved either. Not that we needed his approval, but it just created a lot of tension."

"You don't want to end things with Lulu do you?"

Elizabeth turned away from Sam, walked over towards the window and stared out into the beautiful blue sky, "I used to know the answer to that, but now I wonder if this is how it was meant to be."

"You're just thinking of everyone but yourself right now." Sam said, taking a step forward, but quickly stopped, unsure how Elizabeth would react if she got too close, "If you love Lulu there's always hope."

"I appreciate you trying to help, but I think hope was killing us. We kept hoping that things would improve, but there's just too much history between Lucky and I for this to work. She feels it. I feel it. Lucky feels it and I think the kids feel it." Elizabeth said as she turned to face Sam again, "I'll wait until Lulu is ready to talk and I'll see what she wants to do."

Unable to hold off any longer, Sam moved up beside Elizabeth, "I know I said some really dumb things the other day and I want to apologize for that. You didn't need that and I'm so sorry, but I don't want to be the reason you and Lulu don't work out."

"I'm glad you apologized, but this was coming for a while now." Elizabeth said, her eyes locking onto Sam's for the first time since she'd arrived, "You really don't have stay. I'll be fine."

"No, you aren't fine at all." Sam said, instinctively putting her hand over Elizabeth's arm, "I hate seeing you like this. I can tell you're miserable and I know I helped set all this in motion. If it's the last thing I do I'm going to make this up to you."

Elizabeth could feel the regret in Sam's words and somehow that made her feel a little better, "Sam, it's in the past now. I know that I shouldn't be feeling this right now, but I can't seem to help it, when I'm around you I feel such a strong attraction and that's what got me into trouble before. I think you better go before I do something I'm going to regret."

"If you still want me I need to know." Sam said, sensing hope in Elizabeth's words and even more in her expressive eyes, "I don't want to ruin what you have with Lulu, but if there's even a little hope for us I'm going to fight for it. The fact you feel this way has to tell you something. Maybe we are meant for each other and all this is happening for that very reason."

"Do you believe that? Do you believe that you and Maxie were somehow doomed?" Elizabeth asked, finding it hard to concentrate with Sam so close to her, "I don't know what to think, but I can't and won't do anything until I talk to Lulu. I still think you should leave."

"I don't want to go. I can stay and be your friend." Sam said, ignoring Elizabeth's words, focusing on what she knew she really wanted, "We don't have to do anything or say anything; I just don't want you being alone. Can I do that?"

Elizabeth smiled and wished so much she could accept, but knew she couldn't, "That's really nice of you to offer, but I don't think Lulu would appreciate it all that much."

"Okay, I guess you're right, but please call me after you've talked with Lulu."

"I will." Elizabeth said with a smile, letting out a sigh as she walked to the front door, "Thanks for stopping by. I'll call you soon."

Sam smiled at Elizabeth, opened the door and took a step outside, turning to face her one last time, "I want to say so many things right now, but I'm going to go to my new job and put my energies into that for a while. I look forward to hearing from you though. Bye."

Elizabeth watched Sam walk away, her eyes lowering to Sam's ass in her light blue jeans, a sight that always made her smile. As she watched Sam get into her car and drive away, she spotted Lulu at the end of the driveway, looking anything but happy.

Lulu walked up to Elizabeth and shook her head, "Well, I don't think you could be more obvious about how you feel about Sam or at least her ass, you didn't take your eyes off it the whole time. I don't think that's all you want from her is it?"

"Lulu, you are over reacting." Elizabeth said, hoping to sound convincing, "Sam was just here as a friend."

"I bet." Lulu said with a laugh as she brushed past Elizabeth and walked into the house. She put her coat and purse on the sofa and stopped in the middle of the room and waited for Elizabeth to come inside before continuing, "Well, it's probably best she was here, because we need to talk."

"I think that's a good idea." Elizabeth agreed.

"I really thought we could make it, but there's just so many things that keep getting in the way." Lulu said, her anger fading as she continued, "Maybe I was naïve to believe we could work, but I did. I ignored everyone's warnings, that it would be too hard to make it work with Lucky being your ex and my brother. I honestly didn't think it would be a problem, but it is."

"I know, but it's not the only problem." Elizabeth nodded, sliding in beside Lulu on the sofa, "I've made a lot of mistakes with you and I'm sorry for all of them. I don't regret a minute of the time we've been together though and I hope you don't."

"I don't, but I think we both know it's time to move on." Lulu said, her eyes watering up as she began to think of all the good times she'd had with Elizabeth over the last year.

Elizabeth smiled as she saw Lulu begin to tear up, leaning in and wiping the tears away, "I hope those are happy tears."

"Yes, it's just that it's so hard to think of this ending. I don't hate you. I still love you and yet here we are, talking about moving on, moving apart, living our lives separately. It feels so surreal." Lulu said softly, staring into Elizabeth's sexy blue eyes, wondering how she was going to say goodbye to them forever, "When you are so close to me like this, I don't want to leave. I want to forget all our problems and just kiss you all night long."

"I would love that so much, but you know we can't." Elizabeth said, pulling back slowly until she was leaning back against the sofa, "We never had problems kissing."

"No we didn't." Lulu said with a sexy smile, "That's why this is so hard. If I hated you, if I didn't want to see you ever again I sure wouldn't want to be kissing you, but I do. How am I'm going to move on when I still feel this way?"

Elizabeth smiled and brushed the hair away from Lulu's face, "You will. You just need to give it time. You'll find someone else and they'll be who you're thinking about kissing."

"I don't know. I don't do alone well." Lulu said with a half hearted laugh.

"You'll be fine and if you ever need me I'll be there. Don't forget that."

"Thanks." Lulu nodded, "I hope I can still see the kids to. I've grown so close to them, I don't want them to think I've deserted them."

Elizabeth took Lulu's hands in her own and held them tightly, "You can visit them whenever you want. I'd love it and they'd love it."

"Well, I will visit them whenever I get the chance." Lulu smiled, still mesmerized by Elizabeth's beautiful face, "I guess I should get going. Are we still friends? I hope this doesn't mean we grow apart and never speak again."

"Of course we're still friends and you'll always be part of my life." Elizabeth said, reassuring Lulu as they got to their feet, "I wish things could've turned out differently for us, but maybe this is what was meant to be."

Lulu smiled and nodded, reaching into her purse for her keys when she spotted her passport, "Oh, I almost forgot, I'm going to be leaving for Paris in a few days, but I'll stay in touch and will be visiting the kids as soon as I get back."

"Paris?" Elizabeth said with an excited smile, "Is this for Kate?"

"Yes, she's taking Maxie and I with her and we are going to see all the big fashion shows and it's going to be so much fun."

"Are you sure you and Maxie can coexist for that long?"

"Well, Kate is making sure we get along, because if we don't we're both fired, so Maxie and I have very good motivation to make this work."

"Good, I think this will be great for both of you. I want to hear all about it when you get back."

"You'll be the first person I tell." Lulu said with a smile, before she turned and walked towards her car.

**End of Chapter** 6.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**.

**HJCK Television Studios**

Amelia walked out of her meeting with the TV station's board of director's, breathing a quick sigh of relief at Everyday Heroes getting the go ahead, but her victory smile didn't last long as Jason grabbed her by the arm and dragged her into a small room in the next corridor.

"I need any information you have on Claudia Zacchara." Jason said as if Amelia were his informant.

"I don't know anything about her life. I know her on a personal level and that's all."

Jason gave Amelia his angry constipated stare, "Don't lie to me."

"Oh would you stop." Amelia said, laughing at his attempts to act tough, "You must know that we're a couple. Even that's on her terms. One of those terms is the same terms you force on anyone who gets close to you, which is I don't ask about her business and she doesn't talk about it. Fact is I don't want to know what she does. It scares me and the only way I can make this work is to not think about it."

"You two have been seeing each other for a lot longer than anyone else knows. Why did you keep this a secret? Why all the ploys? Why make Johnny think you are the enemy?"

Amelia paused to take in everything Jason had said, more than a little shaken that he knew so many details of her life, "You may know some things about my life, but I'm telling you I don't know one thing about Claudia's life as a mobster. She's very careful not to talk about it. No offence, but even though I have no problem with you or Sonny and I appreciate you saving my life, I would not betray Claudia. Luckily, I have no information to give you."

"I'm not sure how much you know about Claudia's business, but you are going to learn that she is not going to be calling shots soon. She's hooked up with a much bigger organization and she'll be a small little pebble who has no real power. Now that may not seem like a big deal to you, but Claudia may not know this is about to take place. I've just found out that this merger was orchestrated by her father, his last and final attempt to keep her out of the family business."

"What?" Amelia said, showing some emotion for the first time, "Claudia may not tell me what's going on, but I know she would know if her dad had sold her out."

"That's the thing about Claudia, she is a little over confident at times and really underestimated her father's desire to ruin her life."

"Even if that's true, he loved Johnny. He wanted Johnny to have the organization. OMG, is Johnny in on this?"

A hint of a smile crossed Jason's normally blank face, "Well, in his father's eyes, Johnny lost his claim to power when he sided with his sister. Next time you talk to Claudia tell her I want to set up a meeting. I know she isn't interested in joining this rival organization and as much as I don't trust her, I still prefer working with her than dealing with an unknown group."

"Tell her yourself." Amelia yelled as Jason left the small closet, closing the door behind him.

** Robin Scorpio's Apartment**.

Robin sat staring at a picture in her hand, her head spinning as to what it meant. She picked up the envelope it came in and spotted a small piece of paper stuck in the back and pulled it out. She opened it up and began to read it.

Hello Robin.  
You don't know me, but I know you're mother and while I know you are aware of her line of work and has to keep some secrets from you, but I bet you didn't know about this one. Yes, the picture is authentic. If you wish, you can have your uncle Mac send it for testing, but it is the real thing. Along with this picture of your mother in the middle of a passionate kiss with Courtney Mathews, you will find instructions on how to find more revealing pictures of your mother and her many conquests. I was just one of them. Someone she used and tossed away like dirt. I'm a big girl and I've got over it, but it just didn't seem fair that you don't know what kind of person your mother really is. I know you are planning a birthday for her, but before you do that, why not ask her about Courtney and once she's done explaining that, perhaps she can discuss her relationship with other well known women from her past, including Felicia Jones, Brenda Barrett and of course, me. Oh I bet you want to know who I am, but you'll find out soon enough. Bye and say happy birthday to Anna for me.  
XXXOOO

**Port Charles Airport**.

Lulu arrived at the security check point just as Maxie came strolling up, pulling five insanely large bags of luggage behind her. She shook her head at all the bags and couldn't help but smile, "We are not going to Paris for a year, so what's with all the bags?"

"I like to have a lot of options." Maxie said, smiling down at her fleet of bags, "I don't know how I'm going to feel when I get there, but I want to have the right clothes for my mood."

"You're insane." Lulu said without blinking an eye.

"What was that?" Kate asked as she waited for Lulu to turn around, "Is this how you are going to behave in Paris?"

"No. Not at all." Lulu said, cringing at having to explain her latest insult, "I just meant that Maxie probably doesn't need that much luggage and I didn't choose a very good word for it."

Kate looked over at Maxie's baggage and laughed, "Maxie, we are only going to be there a week."

"You have 3 bags, Lulu has 2 and I have 5, but I need every one of them." Maxie explained as she looked at Lulu and Kate staring back at her with big smiles on their faces, "I do."

"Okay, well let's keep this flight civilized. I have you two sitting side by side, so I hope you are ready to start showing me some of that new positive attitude you promised me."

"I was a victim here." Maxie declared, "Luckily, I've developed a thick skin and no longer am affected by Lulu's rather large mouth."

"Do you two even know when you are insulting the other?" Kate asked while staring back at both Maxie and Lulu, "If you can't talk without exchanging insults, don't talk at all. Is that clear?"

"Yes Miss Howard." Maxie said with a nod and smile.

Lulu sneered at Maxie but quickly put on a big smile, "Yes, we will get along, I'll make sure of it."

"More like 'I'll make sure of it." Maxie said, quick to correct Lulu.

Kate rolled her eyes and made her way through the long security checkpoint, which was still more enjoyable than listening to her two employees bickering like little children.

**A City Park a few blocks from Elizabeth's house**.

Elizabeth watched from her seat as Cameron played on the swings with another young boy, while she tried to keep Jake occupied with an assortment of toys. She kept a close eye on Cameron, not wanting a repeat of what happened with Jake to ever happen again.

Sam strolled into the park, spotted Elizabeth and came to a stop. She pondered turning around, but felt that was a bit silly, so she kept walking until Elizabeth made eye contact with her, "Hi."

"Hi" Elizabeth replied, her eyes lighting up just a little too much at the sight of Sam walking up to her, "What brings you here?"

"Nothing really, I was just clearing my head. I didn't know you were here if you think I'm stalking you are something." Sam said with a laugh as she stopped right beside Liz and waved at Jake.

"I'm glad to hear that." Liz said with a smile as she tried very hard not to stare at Sam's tight top and equally tight jeans, "So what are you clearing your head of?"

Sam paused a moment, wondering if she should burden Elizabeth with more of her personal issues, but she felt so at ease talking to her she couldn't help it, "I accepted Amelia's offer to come back and host Everyday Heroes and I'm wondering if that's a mistake."

"Why's that? You loved that show."

"I know, but it's the business side of things I'm not sure about."

"You mean Amelia?" Elizabeth said, trying not to sound jealous.

"Yes, she's certainly one of them, but I found out she's seeing Claudia Zacchara and I don't like that." Sam said, turning away from Elizabeth as she continued, "I don't want Amelia turning into a mob princess, but who knows what she might be do if Claudia asked."

"You think she'd use the show for some mob reason?"

"I honestly don't know, but our relationship was rocky from the start and even though we moved past things, it's still awkward being around her." Sam spun back around and smiled, more than ready to change the topic, "Anyway, I was going to ask Jason about Claudia, but I don't think that's a good idea."

"I wouldn't do that either. Jason isn't likely to give you any information. He actually warned me about her the last time I talked to him. I hate that I have to think of such things, but the sad part is the only way I can feel safe is if Jason is dead and even though we don't see eye to eye on things anymore, doesn't mean I want him dead."

"I know, but it has to be a horrible position to be in." Sam said as she sat down beside Liz, "Anyway, I know it's none of my business, but did things go with Lulu?"

"Not well." Liz said, letting Jake down on the ground by her feet, "It's over between us. She's probably in Paris as we speak. I hope she has a great time. She could use it after what I put her through."

"Stop being so hard on yourself." Sam said, instinctively putting her arm around her, "You said there were other problems that Lulu couldn't get past, so just remember that, okay?"

"You don't need to make me feel better." Liz said, turning to face Sam, looking deep into her beautiful eyes, "I need to get back to my kids. I'm glad you stopped by, but I really can't be around you right now."

Sam got to her feet as Liz knelt down beside Jake, "I'm just trying to help."

"I know, but it's just too hard when you're around. I feel things that I can't feel right now. Not soon after I ruined things with Lulu. I can't be happy, not now." Elizabeth said, keeping her eyes away from Sam as she picked up Jake, "Please, just go and I'll talk to later."

"Liz, it doesn't have to be like this." Sam sighed, stopping to watch Elizabeth walk towards Cameron, never tiring of the amazing view of her in tight jeans, "Let me help with the kids. Just as a friend. I am able to do friend things you know."

"Yes, but you are too distracting. I need to focus on the kids and getting my life back on track. I'm not saying we can never talk, I'm just saying it's too soon."

"I think you are over reacting, but if this what you want, I'll go." Sam said, taking a few steps away from Elizabeth but hoping so much she'd call her back. When that didn't happen, she let out a deep sigh and continued on towards the docks.

As Sam got to the docks she spotted Anna Devane talking to a woman with blonde hair and when she looked closer she let out a gasp, covering her mouth as she realized who it was. Not thinking about anything, Sam rushed over and stopped in front of Courtney. She looked her over from head to toe and then touched her on the arm, jumping back as she felt warm human flesh, "OMG, you're alive."

Anna rolled her eyes and turned away from the two women, grabbing her cell phone and walking to the edge of the pier. Courtney smiled at Sam, "Well, I was going to call you, but...well, here I am, alive and well as you can see."

"I don't understand." Sam said, still in shock as her long dead almost girlfriend stood before her, "You died. We had a memorial. How?"

"It's a long story, but I promise to tell you all about it soon." Courtney said, distracted by Anna's waving arms, "I know this not going to help, but I really have to go. I promise I'll call you tonight okay? I'm really happy to see you and you look great, but there's something I take care of and it just won't wait."

Sam didn't get a chance to respond as Courtney followed Anna to her sporty blood red Mercedes-Benz SLK300 and tore off down the narrow alley way. Before she could even begin to process what she'd just seen Carly walked up and headed right for her.

"What are you doing here?" Carly asked, as if she were Sam's keeper.

"About to go for a swim, wanna join me?" Sam said as she walked past the annoyed blonde.

Carly grabbed Sam's arm and spun her around, "Don't you walk away from me."

Sam laughed at Carly's attitude, yanking her arm from her rather weak grip, "What is your problem? We haven't seen each other in months and you're acting like I'm married to Jason and you're still jealous."

"Don't flatter yourself." Carly said, hating it when Sam got in a zinger, "I actually need to talk to about something and I'm not sure how to go about it. Have you seen anyone around lately that you haven't seen for a while?"

"Oh, so you know about Courtney rising up from the dead?" Sam asked with a much less surprised look.

"I figured you'd see her around sooner or later, you seem to have a nose for pretty girls."

"Is that a compliment?" Sam smiled, sniffing around, "I seem to have come up dry here, I wonder why."

"Very funny, but we both know you'd be all over me if you thought I'd say yes." Carly said, confidently, smiling back at Sam as she took out an envelope and handed it to the short, curvy brunette, "I don't know why I'm telling you this, but as much as I despise you I have this strange compulsion to warn you about your impending legal problems."

Sam grabbed the envelope and ripped out a large document, skimmed through it until she saw her name if bold print listed. She took another look to make sure she'd read it right and then shook her head at Carly, "Where you'd get this?"

"Well, I was at the police station earlier trying to find out why Sonny was there and I overheard Scott Baldwin talking about how he was going to put you away for a very long time." Carly said, enjoying watching Sam squirm, "Anyway, if you read a bit further you'll see that Scott believes you are a prime suspect in the disappearance of his son Logan."

"What? I barely know him."

"Yep, but you are friends with Lulu and he thinks you helped her get rid of him."

"Get rid of? Is he insane?"

"Yes, quite." Carly said without blinking an eye, "but that doesn't matter since he has all the power to make this stick. Apparently, you were seen defending Lulu from one of Logan's outbursts just a few days ago and told him to get lost or he wouldn't have to worry about stalking Lulu again."

Still in a state of shock, Sam struggled to explain herself, even if it made no difference to Carly, "I wasn't serious, I just trying to get his attention."

"That's a shame, because now you're going to face the wrath of our very own misguided and crooked DA, Scott Baldwin."

"Oh god, I don't need this." Sam sighed, wondering just what she'd gotten herself into, "How do I prove a negative?"

"Oh sweetie, that's your problem." Carly said with a laugh as walked away from a stunned Sam.

**End of Chapter 7**.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8.**

**Hotel Concorde La Fayette, Paris, France. **

Kate stopped at the main desk, waited patiently for the receptionist to get off the phone, while constantly giving Maxie and Lulu the evil eye for their incessant yammering, "Would you two stop it."

Both young women instantly zipped up their mouths and put on happy smiles for their annoyed boss, something that brought a smile to Kate's exasperated face, "That's better. Now I believe you've had more warnings than you deserve, so let me make this perfectly clear to both of you, if you have even one more display of public bickering you will both be on the first plane back to the US and you'll be looking for new jobs as well. I don't care what you do in your room tonight, but once you are in public you will behave like adults and as ambassadors for my company. Do I need to repeat this for you?"

"No Miss Howard." Maxie said, as Lulu nodded her agreement instantly.

"Good. Now, you will be staying in room 121." Kate said as she handed Maxie the keys to her room, "I'll be in 412. If you need anything call me, but otherwise, just take it easy, relax and get some sleep, because we have a very busy day tomorrow."

Lulu glanced over at Maxie and then stared at Kate with a puzzled look on her face, "Why is she getting a room and I'm not?"

"Oh, you two are staying the same room." Kate said with an amused grin, "It'll give you a chance to work through some of your issues."

"But..."

Kate quickly interrupted Lulu, "I'm sure you aren't going to argue with me about this."

Putting on a fake smile, Lulu nodded, "Of course not. I'll see you in the morning."

Kate smiled and made her way to the elevator as the two girls stood and stared at each other in disbelief.

"Now look what you've done." Maxie said with an annoyed whine, "You are always pissing off Kate and one day she's going to fire both of us because of your attitude."

"Oh please." Lulu said with a laugh, "You can't tell me you like this arrangement anymore than I do. So why are you so quiet?"

"Well, I for one do not want to lose this job, so if this is what Kate wants, then I'll make it work. So if that means you have to stay in your room all night, that's okay by me."

"I don't think so. She didn't put you in charge."

Maxie held out the room key and smiled, "Well, I think she did. That's why I have the keys and you have nothing. So, if you'll grab my bags, we can get moving."

Lulu began to turn red at Maxie's insulting comments, "If that's a joke, I'll laugh, but if not, you are in for an earful."

"Oh chill out would you." Maxie laughed, "Yes, it was a joke, but it wouldn't hurt you to help. I mean, look at all my bags?"

Lulu rolled her eyes at Maxie's convoy of bags, grabbed her own two bags and walked right past her, "I'll see you up at the room. Don't take all night, I'd like to have a shower and then see some sites before I call it a night."

"Oh no you don't. I'm having the first shower, so don't even think about it." Maxie yelled as she watched Lulu walk away from her.

** Sonny Corinthos' Coffee Warehouse**.

Courtney slipped in a side door, took out a guard who spotted her and continued forward towards a large group of crates that were set aside from all the others. She looked around and spotted another guard walking towards her, so she ducked off to the side, waited for him to get close and once again incapacitated him, lowering him gently to the floor.

Once the room was secure, she moved back to the crates, grabbed a crowbar from the wall and began opening one of the crates. After some serious prying, she managed to get the lid open just enough that she could look inside.

She pulled the lid up even more and reached down until she got her hands on something. She pulled up a small bag, opened it, put a finger inside and tasted it, letting out a disappointed sigh as the taste of cocaine filled her mouth.

Pulling out her cell phone, she slid off to the back of the warehouse as she waited for Anna to pick up.

"Courtney, what did you find?" Anna said as she looked through her binoculars at the outside of Sonny's warehouse.

"I can't believe it, but there's cocaine in these crates." Courtney said, still stunned by what she'd found, "It doesn't make sense. Sonny has always been against drugs. There has to be another explanation."

"He's in the middle of a pretty tricky situation right now, with the Zacchara's moving in on his territory and now with the backing up some new organization, it's possible he needed some quick cash. We can't rule it out."

"No, I don't think so. Something else is going on here." Courtney said, refusing to believe the worst about someone she called her brother for over 5 long years.

Anna sighed at Courtney's blind loyalty to Sonny, but before she could question it, she saw two people moving towards the warehouse, "You need to get out of there. Someone is coming. A man and a woman are heading right for the warehouse."

Courtney closed her cell and moved to the far wall, keeping a close eye on the door as she pulled out her gun and waited for it to open.

Moments later the door opened and a man walked in first, followed by a short, beautiful brunette.

"Are you sure Jason is busy right now? I don't want him to find out about this." The woman said as she moved towards the crates.

"Yes, we have him under surveillance as we speak. He's going to a meeting with Claudia right now. Are you sure we can trust her?"

"We don't have to trust her for long. If she doesn't go along with the plan, we kill her."

"Okay." The man said, smiling as he nodded, "Why are we here?"

"I wanted to make sure first hand that the drugs arrived." The woman said as she noticed the open crate and spun around, looking all over the warehouse, "Someone has opened this. Find out who. If Sonny knows about this already, it's all going to be ruined. Now search this place."

The man did as he was ordered and quickly found the two men on the floor, calling the brunette to where they lay, "I don't think Sonny would do this to his own employees, so it seems that someone else knows about the drugs."

"Damn it." The woman said as she paced back and forth in front of the open crate, "Make the call now. Call Mac Scorpion personally, no better yet, call Scott Baldwin, he'll be even more motivated to make this stick."

The man nodded and placed the call, while the very attractive brunette walked out of the warehouse.

Courtney waited for the man to follow and rushed out of the warehouse and hopped into the passenger seat beside Anna, "Someone is trying to frame Sonny. Did you get a good look at that woman, I couldn't see from here?"

"Actually I did and she has a little something in common with you."

"What?"

"She's come back from the dead as well." Anna said with a slight smile, "That is Brenda Barrett, Sonny's ex, a woman he drove to a mental breakdown. Last I heard she was in Paris. I haven't heard one thing about her since she left Port Charles almost 5 years ago. If she were involved with some organization, there would've been chatter about it. She's not the kind of woman who goes unnoticed."

"Well, I only met her a couple times, but if she's out for revenge, then she's going to get it. If Mac or Scott sees those drugs in his warehouse it won't matter how they got there."

"We have other things to worry about. Let the police handle this. If Sonny is being framed I'm sure Mac will figure it out. He's a fair man."

"How can you say that?" Courtney asked, curious as to Anna's lack of concern at Sonny's predicament.

"Look, I know you got close to Sonny for a long time, but that doesn't change who he is or what he's done over the years. He is not an innocent man by any means. While I don't condone framing him, I'm not going to worry about it either. One less mobster is good for Port Charles."

"But he's quit the mob. Jason's in charge. Why are you so against Sonny? All these years and you've never said a thing about him."

"I've seen some of the things he's done in the past and we've never been able to put him away for those. I know he didn't treat you very well when you came to town either." Anna said, hating that she let her emotions take over for a moment, "Look, I'm not out to get Sonny, but if he goes down in the process I'm not losing any sleep over it either."

"I don't know if I want to hear this." Courtney said, shaking her head at Anna's unfeeling attitude towards Sonny, "I know he's no saint, but he's tried to change, sort of. Even if he hasn't left the mob for good, I guess I don't want to see him in jail."

"We don't have time for this. I understand how you feel a bout Sonny, but he's not our only target, so I need you focused. Can you do that?"

Courtney nodded and put her head forward, "Okay what's next?"

"We need to find out who Brenda is working for and what she's been up to these last few years."

** Zacchara Estate**.

Claudia Zacchara sits with her feet up on her large mahogany desk as Jason glared back at her with his usual blank stare, "Have you thought over my offer?"

"I have and I can't make any decision until I know who's backing you."

"Well, that's unfortunate, because that information is not part of the agreement. You know the alternative, it's death. I can't sugar coat it and I know you wouldn't want me to. In fact, my new partner is the one who has offered you this one time choice to join us. Personally, I felt it was better to just kill you. I don't believe you can be trusted to work for me or anyone besides Sonny, but I would accept it if that's what you choose."

"I've been trying to find out who your partner is and it's clear it's not anyone from the east coast, so why the big secret? Eventually I will need to meet your partner."

"It's not my choice. They've asked that it be kept a secret and that's what I'm doing. They have been very gracious about helping me with everything I've needed and I owe it to them to let them tell you on their own schedule."

"You tell them I am not saying yes to anything until I meet them."

Claudia put her feet down and stood up and walked in front of her desk, "Why are you under the impression you get to make the demands here? If you say no, you will be eliminated. Sonny will be eliminated because nobody believes he's out of the mob. If you make this difficult, you will watch the few friends you have left die first. Aside from leaving the country and being on the run for the rest of your life, your only real option is to join now. You would be given a position high up in the organization, but would be working for me."

Jason got to his feet, walked past Carly and walked out the door, not saying a word. Claudia kicked the chair and cursed at Jason as he left and then sat down and began massaging her foot.

While she was rubbing her big toe, Brenda walked into the room, "I saw Jason leaving, did he accept the offer?"

"No, he's a pig headed fool and I still say we are better off if he's dead. I don't know why you would trust him anyway."

"It doesn't matter if you understand, but Jason is someone I trust." Brenda said as she walked around and sat down in front of the big desk, "If he can't do this, then I'll let you do what you want with him. I'm sure that's fair enough?"

"I can't complain, but how long are you going to give him to make a decision? He wants to meet with my partner, so unless you are ready to let him know that's you, he will never say yes. Even then, I'm not sure what he would do if he knew you and I were both his bosses. Not sure he seems like the type that can take orders from women."

"You might be right, but Jason is very good at what he does and if there's a chance we can have him working for us, then we will take it."

Claudia studied Brenda's reaction to Jason and smiled at her, "Okay, from what I've learned you were with Sonny back then, did you have some thing with Jason to?"

"No, not at all." Brenda said with a spontaneous laugh, "Jason likes to be friends with women and he was a good friend to me. We didn't always see eye to eye, but if I needed something he was there. I have no quarrel with Jason at all. Sonny is the target. So don't forget that."

"Oh I won't, but you have to know that if you go after Sonny there is no way Jason will join us."

Brenda got up from her chair and walked right up to Claudia, "Well, what if Jason had reason to kill Sonny?"

Claudia smiled at Brenda's comment and waited intently to hear more about her new partners intriguing idea.

**HJCK Television Studios**

Amelia stood in the middle of the new set for Everyday Heroes, admiring the progress that had already been made when she spotted Sam walking towards her, "Well, what do you think?"

Sam looked over the set and smiled, "It looks pretty good so far. I need to talk to you in private."

"About what?" Amelia asked, never quite sure what Sam was thinking.

"Let's just go to your office." Sam said, leading the way back to Amelia's office.

Once inside, Amelia closed and locked her door and then stood looking down at the short brunette, "What is it? If you are backing out on me I'm going to scream."

"No, it's not that." Sam laughed, "I'm actually looking forward to this. I wanted to talk to you about Claudia Zacchara. You must know she's a mobster and if you do and are still happily seeing her, then I have to question your sanity."

"Oh is that right?" Amelia asked sarcastically, surprised by Sam's comments, "I don't think it's any of your business and I'm not going to talk about it."

Sam grabbed the much taller redhead by the arm and spun her around, "Oh yes you are."

Amelia tried to pull away but couldn't free herself from Sam's very strong grip, "Would you stop it. We are not together and you are not my boss, so I do not have to answer to you."

"I do not want this show going down in flames once the world finds out that Everyday Heroes is connected to some mob groupie." Sam said, not mincing words at all.

Without even thinking, Amelia hauled off and slapped Sam across the face, "Don't you talk to me like that."

Sam again grabbed Amelia's hand, "You sure have picked up some violent habits since you've been sleeping with that mob skank."

"If you don't shut up I'm going to do it for you." Amelia yelled, glaring down at Sam angrily.

"You can try, but I wouldn't advise it." Sam said, squeezing Amelia's arm just enough to let her know who was in control.

"Owe." Amelia screamed, again trying to pull away from Sam's firm grip, "Now who's picked up the mob habits."

Sam let go of Amelia's arm and folder her arms under her large breasts, "I've done a little research into Claudia's past and even before she got back into her family business she had some run ins with the law. She has a hair trigger temper and is not above getting physical with people, usually women, so I just think it's best if you cut your ties with her before you get in over your head."

"I can't tell if that's genuine concern or just your way of being in control, I know how much love to be in control over everything." Amelia said as a smile finally appeared on her pretty face.

"I'm not trying to control you." Sam said, wondering if Amelia were right as she stepped around the tall redhead, "I do know that she's dangerous and I can't imagine what will happen if you ever want to end things. I don't sense her taking it well. Do you?"

"Oh stop trying to scare me. I know all about Claudia's life and what she does, but she would never. I'm sure of it." Amelia said rather unconvincingly.

"You don't sound very sure and you shouldn't, because she is not sane." Sam said, trying not to sound like Amelia's keeper, "She's watched how her father climbed to power, using violence and force to take what he wanted and she isn't any different."

"You've made your feelings very clear, but this is my choice and I have no reason to fear Claudia. So, if that's all, can we discuss some ideas I have for some of our first new episodes?"

Sam had little choice and put on a smile and nodded for Amelia to continue.

**End of Chapter 8**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9.**

**Room 121,** **Hotel Concorde La Fayette, Paris, France**.

Maxie stepped out of the bathroom and walked right into the small living room, stood in front of Lulu and smiled at her, "You can have your shower now, but there may not be a lot of hot water left."

Lulu looked at Maxie who was standing completely naked in front of her and forgot what she was going to say, "What in the hell are you doing? Put some clothes on for god sakes."

"Why?" Maxie asked, looking down proudly at her naked body, "I don't wear clothes at home after a shower, so why I should I change now?"

"Maybe because you aren't alone now." Lulu said, trying not to stare at Maxie's sexy body as she got to her feet, "I'm not asking, I'm telling you to put something on or I'll do it for you."

"Oh right. Like you could." Maxie laughed and walked slowly over to the balcony, checking over her shoulder to see Lulu watching her every step.

Storming after Maxie, Lulu stood beside her as they looked out into the beautiful clear Paris skies, "I don't know what you're trying to prove here, but your little peep show is really very lame."

"I'm not doing anything. This is how I like to relax after a shower." Maxie said innocently, looking down and smiling at her naked body, "If seeing me naked is this upsetting for you, perhaps you should go lie down for a while and cry yourself to sleep."

"Oh shut up." Lulu snapped, furious at Maxie's insinuations, "Fine, if you want to parade around like that go for it. See if I care."

"Good." Maxie smiled, turning to face Lulu, "Now, let's discuss the sleeping arrangements."

Lulu gasped, once again stunned by what came out of Maxie's rather cute mouth, "What does that mean?"

"If you had bothered to look around, Kate has put us in a one bedroom suite." Maxie smiled, walking into the living room knowing Lulu's eyes were all over her, "So since we know I'm getting the bed, you can either share it, or sleep on this lovely lumpy sofa here."

"What are you trying to do here?" Lulu asked bluntly, "I know you are somehow into girls now, so is this some kind of weird seduction technique or are you just trying to mess with me?"

Maxie couldn't help but smile at Lulu's observations, "So you know about me and Sam, so what. It wasn't a secret. You're afraid I'm after you now? I can't think of anything more amusing than the idea of kissing you."

"Oh, I'm that repulsive am I?" Lulu said, not even realizing how she sounded.

"Would you rather say I wanted to kiss you?" Maxie said as she stepped up close to Lulu.

Lulu stammered to find something to say, but instead stood silent as she felt Maxie's breasts pushing up against her own.

"You seem a little nervous, cat got your tongue?" Maxie asked with a sexy whisper as she moved her lips right up to Lulu's, "The closer I get, the more I can see that you actually have very nice soft lips. Maybe it wouldn't be so horrible to kiss them after all."

"Maxie." Lulu yelled, pulling away from the naked blonde, "Whatever you're doing, stop. That's enough. I am not kissing you so just keep away from me."

"Gladly." Maxie said with a big smile, turning to walk back to the bedroom, where she stopped and smiled again before slamming the door behind her.

Lulu sat down on the sofa and touched her lips, wondering just what she would've done had Maxie actually kissed her. Strangely enough, the idea didn't terrify her at all, which did terrify her a whole lot.

**General Hospital**.

Elizabeth bumped into Leyla as she returned from checking on a patient, "Hi, is the party for Anna still a go?"

"Yes, why, are you going?" Leyla asked, still not grasping the idea of tact.

"Well yes, Robin invited me. Is that a problem?" Elizabeth wondered, sensing some seriously negative vibes coming from Leyla.

Leyla knew what she wanted to say, but just as she was going to answer Nadine walked up to her. So she smiled at Nadine, "I was just talking to Elizabeth about Robin's party. She'll be there to."

"Yes, I know that." Nadine said as she looked over at Elizabeth and then back at Leyla, "Did I interrupt something?"

"No, I was just on my way out when I bumped into Lizzie." Leyla added, smiling politely at Elizabeth before giving Nadine a hug, "Anyway, I should get going, I'm starving."

Nadine called out Leyla's name but could tell she wasn't going to stop and then turned her attention to Elizabeth, "So what did Leyla have to say to you?"

"Not much really. She seemed surprised that I was going to Robin's party. I got the impression she wasn't happy about it, but I have no idea why."

"Well, this is kind of embarrassing, but she has this idea that you flirt with me."

"What? Why would she think that?" Elizabeth said, stunned at Nadine's comment, yet quickly became unsure of herself, "I don't, do I?"

"Honestly I don't know." Nadine said with a laugh, "We get along well when we're together, but Leyla seems to think she's seen you putting your hand on my arm and we do laugh a lot and I guess she got a little jealous."

"I didn't even realize I did that." Elizabeth said, trying to remember back to the last time she had talked to Nadine in a social situation, "If I do it, it's not to flirt, I must do it without even thinking. I have to talk to Leyla about this."

Nadine grabbed Elizabeth as she began to walk away, "No, you shouldn't do that."

"Why's that?"

"Well, there's one small detail that I haven't shared with you yet that Leyla bases her jealousy on."

Elizabeth could not have looked more confused as she stared back at Nadine, "There's more?"

"If it wasn't embarrassing before, it sure is now." Nadine sighed, moving slightly away from Elizabeth, "Um, I told Leyla that I admired you and she took it the wrong way. I do admire you for being able to raise two young boys while working and dealing with the divorce and the mob distractions that seem to come from knowing Jason. But, I admit that I also think you are a very beautiful woman and that's all Leyla seems to focus on."

"Oh, well I didn't know any of that. Still, I think I can straighten this all out for Leyla. We are just friends and you are happy with Leyla, right? So I need to reassure her that nothing has happened nor will it."

"Well that's pretty final, but you're right, it might help if she heard it from you." Nadine nodded, agreeing with Elizabeth as they walked down the corridor together.

Leyla watched them walk away and put her cell phone to her ear, "Nadine just left with Elizabeth, but I think it's clear that Elizabeth is no longer thinking about Jason."

"Is that so? She could be seeing him in secret. Are you positive she is out of his life for good?"

"I can't be 100% sure, but I'm 99% sure. She was happily with Lulu and even then she's known to have had a love/hate relationship with Sam and I've come to find out she even kissed her sworn enemy Maxie Jones, so I think her days of pining over Jason are history."

"Well, well, well." Brenda said as she lounged by the pool in a teenie weenie white bikini, "I always wondered about her, but it's good to know I don't have to eliminate her. Just keep her away from Jason and the mob and she'll live longer."

"What do you want us to do now?" Leyla asked, constantly looking around to see if she was being watched, "I think the only other person you asked us to keep an eye on that still has contact with Jason on a regular basis is Carly."

"That's not likely Jason's choice, but if she gets in the way then she will be dealt with. I've never liked her, but we may need to remove her from the situation until I've decided what to do about Jason."

"How are things going with Claudia? Has she accepted you as her new boss yet?"

"She will in time." Brenda said, sipping a glass of expensive champagne as she flipped through some files on her lap top, "Listen, have you had any contact with Anna Devane since you've been in Port Charles?"

"No, but I'm invited to her birthday party on Friday. Why?"

"I've heard rumblings that she's in town and she's out to take down the mob, which would be fine by me, but I've got too much tied up with this plan to let her get in the way. How close are you with Robin? Did you send her my little message?"

"Yes, we delivered your message, but we have no idea if she read it or how she reacted. We know her from work, but we don't really hang out a lot outside of work. Is Robin in danger?"

"Not if things go according to plan. I don't want anyone to get hurt, but I refuse to let this plan get derailed by Anna. If I need to use Robin to make that happen, then I will. If Robin starts questioning her mother about her many affairs with very young women I'm hoping this will preoccupy Anna enough for me to finish what I came here for." Brenda got to her feet, sat down her laptop and walked over to the balcony, "I want you to make contact with Anna at this party and do whatever it takes to get close to her. She's not likely to let you in quickly, but I think you are exactly her type and if she has any weakness at all, it's beautiful women."

"Okay, but I need to talk to Nadine first. We need to be on the same page here. If someone sees me flirting with Anna, they're going to tell Nadine and it'll be all over the hospital in no time, so we have to create a reason for this."

"Just do what you have to do." Brenda said bluntly, closing her cell phone as she saw Amelia pull up.

Amelia made her way through the large mansion, entering the spacious den hoping to find Claudia, but instead met up with another attractive brunette sitting on the edge of the large desk, "Who are you?"

"My name is Brenda and I know who you are, Amelia, so please, come in and have a seat." Brenda said, motioning to the chair right in front of her.

Feeling strangely uneasy, Amelia tried to keep her smile as she sat down in front of Brenda, avoiding her legs as they dangled inches away from her, "How do you know Claudia or are you here for Johnny?"

"I have business with the Zacchara's, but right now I'm more interested in learning about you." Brenda said softly, looking Amelia over very slowly.

"I don't think I want to talk about myself right now. I don't even know you. How is it you know my name but need me to tell you more about me? Somehow I think you know everything already."

"Oh, don't be a spoil sport; half the fun is hearing it all." Brenda smiled, hopping down to the ground and sliding onto Amelia's lap, "But, I admit I have done my homework and know a lot about you, but there's only so much information one can find out about a person, the rest has to come from them personally."

Amelia sat back in her chair as Brenda straddled her legs and inched forward until she was face to face with her, "Why do you need to know about me? I'm nobody really."

"That's hardly true or Claudia wouldn't find you so intriguing." Brenda said, her eyes zooming in on Amelia's cleavage, "Your beauty is part of it, but there has to be more to this than just that, so what can you do for Claudia? Is it your connections to her two biggest enemies? Does she want to use your TV station for something? Or does she really care about you?"

"I can't speak for her, but I do care about her and I'm feeling very uncomfortable with you sitting here like this." Amelia said, doing her best to avoid Brenda's healthy cleavage as she tried to extricate herself from the situation as politely as she could, "I think I should go. I'll get in touch with Claudia later."

Brenda smiled as Amelia rushed out of the room and quickly grabbed her cell phone from her purse. She clicked a number from her list and leaned back in her chair as she waited for a reply.

"Hello? Is that you Brenda? I told you not to call me on this line. This is the emergency line and if you don't stop I'm going to change it."

"Would you stop being so angry for one second and hear me out." Brenda said with an annoyed sigh, "I'm going to need you here. I thought I could handle things but there's just too much going on for me to do this alone."

"No. I told you 6 months ago I was done with that life. It almost got my son killed and I'm not going to risk anything like that again, not even for you."

"Look Olivia, you don't have to be in the mob to help. I have some people I need you to meet."

"Oh no, if you think you're going to toss me at some more of your mob clients you can forget it. What happened years ago happened because I thought we were in love and I foolishly agreed to things I can't believe I did, but how can you have the nerve to ask me that after all we've been through trying to patch things up over the years?"

"That's not what I meant." Brenda said as she gripped the desk firmly trying not to show her anger, "Have you heard of Amelia Joffe? She has some TV show on cable. She's a tall gorgeous redhead and I know how you like redheads."

"I've seen the show and yes she is beautiful, but if I know you, and we both know I do, you'll want me to sweet talk her into doing something she doesn't want to do, just so you can get something you want. How close am I?"

Brenda couldn't help but laugh at Olivia's dead on assessment of her request, "You are so cynical. Don't you want to come see Kate? I know you two have a lot of catching up to do. If Kate isn't enough to get you here, what about Sonny? Don't you have some unfinished business with him as well? I don't want to get all pushy here, but I'd really, really appreciate it if you could take some time and come visit me. I'll make it worth your while."

"Stop trying to buy me, I already feel cheap just talking to you." Olivia said as she hung her head, knowing full well what would happen if she ever said no to Brenda, "Fine, I'll come, but I'm not going to be seen with you, I won't make myself or my family a target. I won't be sleeping with anyone either, so if you still want me to come and have something else in mind, I'll start packing."

"Does that include me? The sleeping part that is?" Brenda asked with a wicked grin, before continuing, "Anyway, I'm sure I can find something for you to do, but you better bring an open mind, because I can only take so many no's before I get a little annoyed, okay sweetie?"

"Whatever, give me an address where we can meet and I'll call you when I get there." Olivia said with a resigned sigh, smiling as she looked up at the picture of her son on the refrigerator, wondering just what she was going to tell him this time.

**End of Chapter 9.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10.**

**Anna Devane's Apartment**.

Anna walked into the living room with two cups of coffee in her hands, she sat one down in front of Courtney and sat down across from her, "It looks like Brenda has been a very busy woman lately. She's had contact with most every woman from Sonny's past, every mobster Sonny's ever had run ins with and from what I can tell, is in the process of bringing them all together in her plan to destroy him."

"Well, are we going to let her?"

"You know it's not our assignment. Sonny may have the illusion of being out of the mob, but in the eyes of his enemies he's still a player and that means he's fair game. We don't know that Brenda wants him dead, just that she wants to ruin him, so I don't think there's much we can do."

"We could warn him."

Anna smiled, but only briefly as Courtney didn't approve, "I know you still feel some type of connection with him, but he made his bed long ago and sooner or later it's going to catch up to him and it Brenda makes it happen, then I can't think of a more ironic outcome to Sonny's days a self centered mobster."

"If she kills him I'm not letting her get away with it."

"Of course not, we don't sanction murder, but let's just focus on the Zacchara's and Jason Morgan right now." Anna said, flipping open a folder for Courtney to look at, "If our information is correct, Jason is in for the fight of his life. Whether Sonny is calling the shots or not, there is a very large family planning to join the Zacchara's in their plan to take over Port Charles."

"Who are we supposed to stop?"

"Well that's just it, if they want to kill each other we aren't going to do anything, but whoever's left standing is going down, one way or the other. If that's Sonny and Jason and it looks like it might be, are you sure you can do your job and not let your emotions get in the way?"

"I'd rather not be around for the bloodshed, but I won't get in the way." Courtney agreed as she picked up her purse and made her way to the door, "I'm meeting Claudia for dinner, so I'll call you tomorrow."

Anna didn't get a chance to reply as Courtney left before she could say a thing, so she got up and walked over to her den, pushed a button on a panel behind the bar and waited for a partition to slide open and she stepped inside.

She sat down at the large desk in the middle of the room, clicked on some buttons on a glowing panel on her desk and a massive number of TV screens appeared in a circle around her. Each one at least 30 inches wide, each with a different view of the many people and places of interest in the small yet dangerous city of Port Charles.

After checking most of the feeds, she spotted something in the west wall, the camera just outside the entrance to General Hospital. She zoomed the camera in, turned up the sound and enjoyed the show.

Claudia stopped Elizabeth on her way down the hospital steps, "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

Elizabeth stopped in her tracks, folded her arms across her chest and glared at the dark haired mobster lady, "Make it fast, I have things to do."

"I will." Claudia agreed quickly, "I know you have or had a relationship with Jason Morgan which makes you at the very least an acquaintance of Sonny Corinthos, what I'm wondering is what are your feelings towards these two men right now? Are you still friends?"

"Do you really think I'd discuss that with you?" Liz asked with a mocking laugh, "I know who you are and if you think I'd betray someone I've known for all of my adult life you don't know me at all."

"I know you are angry with Jason for not keeping his word about protecting you and your children. I know that Jason has made the very same promise to Robin, Courtney and Sam and guess what they all have in common? They were shot simply because they were too close to him. I know that Michael was shot because he to was too close to mob. " Claudia took a step closer after every sentence until she was literally right on top of Liz, "As a fellow mobster I know all about your relationship with Jason and that makes you a target. Is that really the kind of life you want for your two beautiful boys?"

"Do not threaten my family." Liz yelled, stepping backwards away from Claudia, "Now if you are done making threats I have someplace I need to be."

"I didn't come here to threaten you at all. I came here to ask you to reason with Jason. I'm not sure if you are aware of this or not, but I've joined up with a very powerful family and in a matter of weeks we will take over Port Charles. You may not care about that, but you might care that Jason will be a casualty unless he bows out and joins us. I personally think you'd be better off without a mobster in your life, but you may not want to see him dead. If not, I suggest you find a way to reason with him or it's going to get very messy around here very soon."

"Why are you asking me to do this? He doesn't listen to anyone. He knows the risks, he doesn't care. I asked him many times if he wanted more out of life than just working for Sonny and he doesn't. He hasn't known any other life. After the accident he began to work for Sonny and I don't think he believes he can do anything else. Either way, he has never listened to me in his life and he sure won't listen when it comes to the mob, because women aren't supposed to have opinions about that."

"Well, I thought I'd give you a chance to persuade him to do the right thing, but I think you're right, I don't think he'll listen to anyone. He'll go down with the ship and you can move on with your life and so can I."

"He won't go down without a fight. You're an idiot if you underestimate him."

"Oh sweetie, this isn't a fight. It's simple math. Sonny's organization was never big. I believe we'd have enough manpower to take him out now, but with the addition of a huge new ally, Jason could be Superman and he'd still be outnumbered about 10-1, so no matter how amazing you think he is, even he can't dodge bullets from that many guns at one time."

"I hate the world you live in."

"And yet you didn't seem to mind when you were chasing after Jason. Funny how that works."

Doing her best to ignore another of Claudia's personal insults, Elizabeth tried to stay focused on the topic at hand, "Even if I could get through to him, I don't think he would ever work for you or your father or whoever is running your organization. He worked for Sonny and I think that's the only person he'll ever work for."

"Then he'll die a very proud man, but being dead isn't anything to proud of, is it?"

"Why did you have to come to town? Why? Like you said, Jason has a very small organization, why even bother with it?"

"Are you sure you've moved on from Jason? Last I heard you were shacking up with Lulu and yet you seem so hung up on what happens to Jason."

"I wouldn't want any of my friends or family to be killed, what's so horrible about that? It's what people with feelings do, they care about others. Just because Jason is out of my life doesn't mean I want him dead." Elizabeth stated angrily, looking over the dark haired mobster with a puzzled stare, "I heard that you weren't that bad, that maybe you'd be better than your father, but obviously that's not true at all. You seem just as ruthless and uncaring as Sonny."

"In my business that's a compliment." Claudia said with a smile, still circling her prey, enjoying the view as she stopped moving and stood behind Liz, "Can I ask you something personal?"

"You can ask but I'm not going to promise I'll answer."

"Fair enough." Claudia nodded and moved even closer to the attractive brunette, "Have you ever thought of a career change?"

Elizabeth stood silent, a smile slowly appearing over her pretty face, "I know I'm going to regret asking this, but what kind of change did you have in mind?"

"I know that years ago you were pretty into fashion and design and now you're into painting, but being a single working mother, those dreams have been put on the backburner." Claudia said, confidently reciting Elizabeth's history, "I could make them happen for you?"

Pausing just a moment, Elizabeth shook her head, "No, I don't want anything from you, but thanks for the offer." She then turned and began to walk way.

Claudia grabbed her arm and stopped her before she had taken a step, "Look, I know that I'm the last person you would ever take something from, but what if the money came from say Audrey or Lucky or Robin, someone you like and trust, would you be interested in starting your own art center, something that encompassed both your love of fashion and your love of painting?

Letting out a sigh as she stared down at Claudia's hand squeezing her arm and then glared up at her, "That's really not the way to gain anyone's trust." Elizabeth said, pulling her arm away from Claudia's very firm grip, "I'm not sure why you are bringing any of this up, because I know you don't do anything without a price and I'm just not willing to pay it, so if that's all, I have work to get back to."

"Don't let your pride rob you of a chance to live out your dream." Claudia said, almost pleading for Elizabeth to listen, "Let me say something as Claudia the person, not the mobster. I did some research into everyone that had a connection to Sonny and Jason and that's how I discovered your talent for painting and your passion for designs. When I was younger I had the same dream. I went to college so I could get a degree in fashion, and believe it or not I used to do a lot of drawing. I didn't paint, but I sketched and my dream was to somehow make a living out of it, but I didn't have the talent you do, nor the perseverance it takes to succeed, but you do. In spite of what you think about me, my offer is genuine. If it helps, we can set it up so you can pay me back any money I give you to start up the company, but I would like you to think about this. Money isn't going to make your dream come alive, but it will give you the chance to see if you can make it work."

"I don't understand any of this." Elizabeth said, shaking her head at the insanity of the situation, "One minute you are insulting me, the next you want to help? How can I trust someone like that?"

"You know, if I had another business to put my time into I would happily give up the family business. I may not have the talent for designs that you do, but I am a good business woman and I would do everything I could to make this work, not just for you, but for me to. So it's not some charity case here. I have a stake in this to. We'd be partners and who knows, we might actually learn to like each other in time."

Still in a daze, Elizabeth walked past Claudia and tried to comprehend what was being offered, "Is this just some ploy to use me to get at Jason or someone else I care about?"

"No." Claudia laughed, "But I can see why you'd think that. Look, we could spend the next few weeks and months trying to get to know each other so you could feel more comfortable about this offer, but I don't need that time. I know this could work and I'm already excited about the idea. Is there any one thing I can do or say that might help you see that I'm serious?"

Pausing for a moment, Elizabeth wondered just what could change her opinion of this woman she'd come to despise, "I don't think you can undo the last 6 months. You haven't been nice to anyone that I know of. You've treated most people with disdain as if they are beneath you and now you seem to be a completely different person talking to me right now. Do you have some kind of personality disorder that I should know about?"

"Humorous, but no, I'm just a very passionate person and I tend to say what I think, before I think it through and that usually gets me into trouble." Claudia said, smiling longer than she had in a long time, "Anyway, I can take a lie detector about this if you that will help, because this offer is real and while it may be coming out of the blue, it all makes sense to me know. It might just be what we're both looking for."

"I need some time to think about this. It's all happening so fast." Elizabeth said as her head spun in a million different directions, "I need to see this side of you more often though, you know, the sane, less bitchy side. I know you hold all the cards, but I can't enter into any partnership until I feel you are actually willing to leave the mob world behind, because I left Jason for that very reason and I'm not going to let you bring it into my life. You better be sure you can do this first."

"Well, I can and will leave it behind. Johnny's wanted control for a long time and he can have it."

"Just like that?"

"Yep, just like that." Claudia smiled, snapping her fingers as if they she were casting a spell, "I thought I needed it to prove to my dad I was worthy of his love, but nothing was going to change that. No matter what I did, my dad was never going to see me as an equal. Even when he left us the business he wanted Johnny to run it and for me to help, so now that he's gone, I have nothing left to prove."

Elizabeth stared at Claudia, trying to get a read on the woman she had been told to fear, "People have said I'm too trusting and it's got me into a lot of trouble in the past, so while I want to believe you, it's going to take more than just words to prove yourself."

"Good, you should be cautious, but you will need to give me a chance or this is doomed from the start."

"Oh I will. If you can stay like this I think there's hope."

"Well good." Claudia said as he cell phone went off. "Well, I'll let you get back to work and I'll be in touch."

"Okay." Elizabeth said as she watched Claudia walk away, wondering what she'd gotten herself into as she walked back into the hospital.

Claudia stepped up to her car, flipped her cell phone on and let out a sigh, "What do you want?"

"Is that any way to talk to your partner?" Brenda said as she leaned back in her lawn chair, enjoying the warm sun on her naked body, "I've been meaning to talk to you about your commitment to this organization. Your little fling with this reporter has really made you soft and I can't have that right now. I told you that everything has to go according to plan or this isn't going to work. That means I need you focused, so you need to dump your pretty redhead for a couple weeks until this is over."

"No." Claudia snapped, "It's taken me a long time to meet someone that I actually enjoy spending time with, I'm not going to toss that aside just so you can get your final revenge on Sonny. I mean, get over it, he left you at the altar, boo hoo. You should consider yourself lucky. Had you stayed with him you'd likely be dead now."

Instantly sitting back up, Brenda's happy go lucky smile was quickly replaced with good old fashioned anger, "Well, if you've ever been left at the altar on what should've been the best day of your life, you'd understand. Now, if you refuse to stop seeing this girl, then you had better start showing a bit more commitment to my plan or you'll be out of this operation and out of this organization in a flash."

"Really? You think Johnny will ever go along with that? Think again."

"Johnny's a guy, if you want me to show you how quickly I can win him over, just say the word and he'll forget he even has a sister."

"Don't you dare." Claudia threatened, her tone changing to meet Brenda's, "Don't make an enemy out of me. You wouldn't like that."

"Oh stop with the threats, you are hardly in a position to make them." Brenda said, happy to point out the obvious, "Let me be very clear about this. You'll do what I ask or you're out. It's that simple."

"You know Brenda; you really shouldn't alienate your allies like this. My relationship with Amelia has nothing to do with how I run the business, so why are you so intent on me ending things with her?"

"I don't like having to explain myself, but since we are still getting to know each other I'll do it this one time." Brenda said with a deep sigh as she got up from her chair and walked around the edge of the large swimming pool, "Let's just say there are things about Amelia that you may not be aware of that I feel make her a threat to my plan. If you are aware of her connection to Sonny, Jason and even the slutty con artist Sam McCall, then you are as stupid as I thought."

"Whatever connection Amelia had to those people is over. She is with me and that's where her loyalty is. I guarantee it."

"Is that so?" Brenda questioned, her disbelief clear in her tone, "Perhaps you can explain why she is having a secret meeting with Sonny right now."

Silence filled the airwaves as Claudia's face went white and she tried to find something to say, but the words just didn't come.

"Just as I thought. What do you suppose Amelia would be discussing with Sonny? We do know they had sex, but you don't suppose she's back for more do you? I wouldn't think so, but Amelia has been prone to bad choices her whole life, so I can't really take that chance, can you?"

"There has to be an explanation for this." Claudia said, doing her best to convince Brenda and herself that Amelia was not betraying her. "I need to find out what's going on."

"You will do no such thing. If she knows you're onto her she will clam up, so I think we need a different approach." Brenda explained, "I want to use a friend of mine to see if she can get any information on Amelia. She's very discreet and she's very good at what she does."

"Just what is she going to do?"

"Oh stop your worrying, she's not going to sleep with Amelia, she's going to befriend her, gain her trust and then find out what's really going on inside that pretty little red head of hers. Nothing sinister I assure you. Well, unless she has turned against you, which would make her an enemy of mine, then all bets are off."

"That's not going to happen, because whatever she was doing with Sonny was not about betrayal, it was about telling Sonny she wasn't going to help him."

"We'll see about that. Now, on another note, could you explain what you were doing with Elizabeth Webber?"

Claudia gritted her teeth and shook her head in amazement, "Are you following me?"

"Not specifically, but I have a lot of friends in Port Charles and that gives me eyes and ears in all the right places. What I do know is you had a very long conversation with her and I'm curious as to why you would even want to talk to her. She's not exactly a big player in any of this."

Claudia sneered at having to explain herself, "But she does know Jason and I wanted to find out if she'd talk him into joining our side."

"Why the hell would you do that?"

"Because he's good at what he does. If he could find a way to work with us, we'd be even more powerful."

"That's the most ridiculous idea I've ever heard. Jason has loyalty to Sonny and himself and that's it. He would never work for you or me. That's just not his thing. Call it macho pride, but he's just never been good at taking orders from anyone but Sonny. I have no real quarrel with Jason, but if he wants to go down fighting for Sonny, then I can't really change that."

"I disagree. I think Jason knows when the odds are against him and I think he'd rather keep doing his job, even if it's with us. We could make him an equal partner, that might make the offer more appealing."

"If that's something you want to do then be my guest, give it your best shot. I say he says no and goes down with Sonny's sinking ship, but I won't stop you from trying."

"Good, then I'll get in touch with him." Claudia said, more than happy to exit the conversation.

**End of Chapter 10.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chaper 11.**

**Hotel Concorde La Fayette, Paris, France**.

Lulu woke up to find Maxie's hand resting on her left breast causing her to sit up immediately, which in turn caused Maxie's hand to fall back on the bed beside her. After the initial shock wore off, Lulu couldn't help notice how enticing Maxie looked all stretched out on the silky sheets, taking an extra long look at her sexy round ass, she found herself getting aroused and quickly rushed into the bathroom before Maxie woke up and saw her.

As she slipped off her tiny night shirt and panties, she grabbed a washcloth and bar of soap from the counter and stepped into the shower. She tried thinking about work, but that didn't last long. There were too many thoughts of Maxie touching her breast flying through her head to think straight. That mixed with the sight of her naked body lying beside her caused more than a few rather naughty thoughts to creep into her by now very confused, yet turned on state.

Despising Maxie had been her hobby for well over a year now and to be thinking of her in a sexual manner was deeply distressing for Lulu, who wanted nothing more than to close her eyes and pretend she'd never seen her arch enemy naked.

She washed every inch of her body as fast as she could, fighting off thoughts of Maxie naked as she tried to get through the shower without giving into the increasingly powerful desires that had been building up since she woke up.

Finally, as the shower came to a close, she felt a sense of relief as she had managed to keep those nasty thoughts from taking over, but as she stepped out of the shower Maxie walked in, still naked as can be, "Did you take my shower?"

"No, I took my shower, but you're free to have one now, I'm sure there's a little hot water left." Lulu said with a satisfied smirk. She went to grab a towel to dry off but Maxie reached out and grabbed all three towels that were sitting on the rack.

"I guess you'll have to let nature dry you off." Maxie said with an equally smug smile as she took the towels out of the bathroom and walked back into the bedroom, tossed them on the bed and promptly fell on top of them, "Hmm, they feel so warm and soft. I could lie here all day."

Growing more annoyed than aroused now, Lulu chased after Maxie and stopped as she saw her lying on the towels, "You are so immature."

"Oh right and you're not?" Maxie yelled back, sitting up to glare at her naked blonde enemy, "You used my shampoo and my soap and take my shower and I'm immature? I don't think so. Now, put some clothes on, you really shouldn't be walking around like that. Kate could be here any minute."

"Stop lying." Lulu laughed, while edging closer and closer to the bed, "That shampoo was from the hotel and Kate is not coming here, we are meeting her in the lobby."

"Wrong and wrong." Maxie happily corrected, "I set out that shampoo and the soap last night before I went to bed and if you peak out the bedroom door you'll see Kate sitting waiting for us."

Lulu shook her head at Maxie, but still walked over and opened the bedroom door and looked out, "She's not there." When she turned to look at Maxie, she saw her going through her luggage and that was the last straw. She made a beeline for Maxie, flying over the bed and tackling her to the ground, "What the hell are you doing in my stuff?"

Maxie struggled to get free, but couldn't get any leverage and after a few half assed attempts to push her off, she let out a deep sigh, "Look you animal, I was going to grab your shampoo and use it. That's all. Now get off of me before I get mad."

"Not until you say sorry."

"For what?" Maxie asked, honestly confused by Lulu's demand.

"How about for stealing my towels or even worse, for groping me when I was sleeping." Lulu added, doing her best to sound upset, "I could have you arrested for that."

Maxie laughed out loud at Lulu's latest accusation, "Oh don't flatter yourself, you have nothing I want to grope, so see a shrink for your delusions and get off of me!"

"I bet there's a camera here, but yes, your hand was on my breast when I woke up. I guess your sexual urges just can't be controlled even in your sleep. Must be a slut thing."

"Shut up." Maxie growled, using all the energy she could muster to make a final attempt to push Lulu off. With one leg pushing against the bed she pushed hard in the other direction and sure enough she had enough force to knock Lulu off to the side.

When there was a loud thud and then a scream, Maxie got up and saw Lulu holding her head as blood trickled down the side of her face, "OMG. What happened? What did you hit?"

Lulu pointed to the corner of the dresser, "Oh god it hurts."

Maxie frantically rushed over and looked at the wound, "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to do that. We need to wash that out. Come with me."

Not having a whole lot of say in the mater, Lulu put her arm around Maxie and her hand over her head as she was led back into the shower. Maxie grabbed a new washcloth from under the sink and hopped into the shower with Lulu and began applying pressure to the small, but nasty cut on her forehead.

After a few minutes the bleeding had stopped and yet the two girls were still huddled together, with Maxie being the first to notice just how close they were as she felt Lulu's breasts pushing against her own. Knowing it wasn't intentional, yet still finding it strangely pleasing, Maxie looked back at Lulu who was noticing the same thing and they both smiled, but didn't say a word.

Lulu couldn't help but enjoy the brief moment where Maxie looked so cute and was so gentle and caring as she helped treat her cut and that seemed to be all she needed to convince her lips that maybe she wasn't so bad after all. Without saying a word, she gave Maxie another long look and knew she wanted it to and in unison the two girls began kissing.

It wasn't your ordinary slow, get to know each other kiss either, this one was filled with passion, fiery passion and they kissed hard and deep, as if they'd been lovers forever. Every movement was met by the other without missing a beat. Their hands anxiously explored each other's naked bodies with unbridled enthusiasm, wanting to touch what they'd only dreamed about for so long.

Maxie slid her hands down Lulu's round ass, caressing it, enjoying every amazing curve, before sliding them back up so she could brush aside some of Lulu's soft blonde hair that was beginning to tickle her nose as they kissed.

After moving Lulu's hair away from her face, Maxie began kissing her way down Lulu's soft sweet neck, nibbling her way towards her ear lobe, licking and sucking it as Lulu moaned her approval.

With Maxie moving down to Lulu's breasts, a sense of excitement filled the tiny shower stall as Maxie cupper Lulu's soft round breasts, caressing them as she licked her lips in anticipation of what came next.

Just as she leaned in closer, there was a loud crashing sound and seconds later Kate rushed into the bathroom and stopped in her tracks at the sight of the two naked young women in a very compromising position.

Along with Kate were two large men with axes, who also got to see a whole lot more of the two women than they would've liked. Kate quickly turned the men away and closed the bathroom door, "What the hell is going on here?"

**Tupressi Bar and Grill, Port Charles**

Claudia smiled as Courtney walked towards her, enjoying the view as the tight blue dress showed off her sexy fit body incredibly well, "I'm glad you could make it."

"I've been looking forward to this all day." Courtney said as she followed Claudia into the fancy restaurant.

After being seated, Claudia waited for the waiter to leave, took another moment to enjoy Courtney's cleavage her plunging neckline was providing before finally uttering some words, "I don't want things to get off to a bad start and after seeing you in this dress I don't think that's possible, but I need to let you know something and you might not be too happy about it."

Courtney smiled at Claudia's compliment, but just as quickly grew weary about what she was about to say, "I guess it's best to get the bad out of the way first."

"I call it being cautious, but you might not agree. I had you investigated and I turned up some rather disturbing information about you."

Unsure of what Claudia was referring to, Courtney chose to play it calm, "Oh, I'm not sure what that would be. Aside from coming back from the dead, I've led a pretty boring life."

"Oh I'd hardly call your life boring." Claudia said with a laugh, "Living with Jason Morgan is one thing that stands out and being Sonny's sister is another, but even with those two negatives I had hope we could still work together, but it seems that you have an even bigger secret that even they don't know about."

Suddenly Courtney's calm exterior took a hit, fearing Claudia had uncovered the truth about her working for Anna, "Maybe you should stop speaking in riddles and just tell me what you think you know."

"Okay, I found out about your run in with the mob in your search for that fertility drug and what puzzles me is there's no record of you being kept in any safe house, so I have to wonder, just what you've been doing for the past two years?"

A brief sense of relief came over Courtney, "You are very thorough aren't you?"

"I have to be." Claudia replied, still waiting for a real answer.

"This isn't supposed to be public knowledge, so can I get you to promise not to tell anyone, especially Carly, Jason or Sonny? I'm not proud of what I did and I was hoping to keep it in the past where it belongs."

Claudia leaned forward, put her hand over Courtney's arm and smiled, "Of course you can trust me. I just need this cleared up before we go any further."

"Well, the FBI wanted me to stay in the safehouse. That part is true, but I didn't want to. I didn't feel that Maletti would spend another second worrying about me and I was right. I'm not sure why I didn't go back to Port Charles, but I think I just needed some time to think." Courtney said calmly, checking on Claudia's reaction to her story, "I wasn't in a relationship and aside from Carly, I had no reason to go back. Anyway, I decided to take some time to think and clear my head and I ended up going overseas. I spent some time in China and a few months in Moscow, I had money, Sonny made sure of that and I just enjoyed seeing the different cultures around the world and I met someone in Rome and we hit it off instantly and I just didn't want to leave."

"I don't know what to say, but I have no information of you being in any of those places."

"That's because I didn't use my real name." Courtney said with a slight laugh, reaching into her purse and pulling out her wallet, "I used this name. It's what the FBI gave me as part of my new identity."

Claudia looked at the driver's license, birth certificate and other forms of ID all with the name Jennifer Marlow on them and sat back in her chair, "You do know that I'm going to have to verify this story as well."

Courtney nodded with a big bright smile, "Of course. I hope you do, but I just don't want anyone else finding out about it, until I'm ready to tell them."

"Fair enough." Claudia said, feeling that Courtney might just be telling the truth, "Now that we have that out of the way, I hope we can enjoy a lovely evening together?"

"I'd like that." Courtney said, taking a long sip of wine, pleased that she had dodged a bullet for the time being at least.

**Port Charles Pier**.

Jason stood at the corner of the docks, in a dark corner, gun in hand waiting for Karpov, but as Sam walked onto the docks, his normally serious face became quickly annoyed. With a deep sigh he walked towards Sam, grabbing her by the arm and dragging her back into the corner with him, "What are you doing here?"

"Nice to see you to." Sam snapped, ripping her arm from his grip, "If you'd stop dragging me into your mob crap I could go back to enjoying a nice view of the water."

"Sure, like you come down here to meditate." Jason said, partially serious with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"I have no other reason to be here." Sam explained to her highly paranoid ex, "I really did come here to do some thinking."

"Well, I have business here so you need to go."

"It's a large dock, I don't think I'll be in the way. So go about your mob business and I'll stay out of your way."

"It's not safe here. Karpov has been moving drugs into Port Charles using this pier and he needs to be stopped. I'm positive he's working with someone and I need to find out who."

"Why are you telling me this? Isn't the idea to keep me out of your life?

"I know, I forget sometimes that we aren't really friends anymore. It's just different right now with Sonny on his own and Claudia and the Zacchara's planning a takeover, I actually remember being able to trust you with this stuff in the past."

"Well I can't be part of this. Elizabeth would never forgive me."

"Elizabeth?" Jason asked as his face contorted in confusion, "What does she have to do with this?"

"Um, nothing really," Sam lied, "It's just that I've been spending some time with her lately, trying to repair the damage I caused and we've finally got to the point where she feels she can trust me and I don't want to ruin that."

"Something doesn't fit here. It seems like you're going through a lot of trouble just to make amends. Why are you so happy when you talk about her?" Jason asked and as he watched Sam look away, he let out a groan, "Oh please tell me you're not interested in Elizabeth now? You have to know that can't work."

"First of all, I don't think it's any of your business who Elizabeth or I decides to see and second of all, I'm just happy to be friends with her right now."

"I can't believe this. You two have never really been friends, not even before we were together. Why her? I thought you were with Maxie?"

"I'm not going to discuss my love life with you. I appreciate your concern, but I really need to go. I'll come back later and do my thinking."

Before Sam could make good on that promise, Karpov walked onto the pier with his men close by. Just as soon after Karpov arrived another vehicle came to a stop and more people got out and moved towards him.

Jason watched as the second group of people got close enough to Karpov to make out who it was. Surprise didn't begin to describe what Jason felt as he saw Brenda Barrett walk up to Karpov.

"It's good to meet you in person." Brenda said, smiling at the large Russian mobster.

Karpov took her hand and kissed it gently, "I'm pleased to meet you as well Miss Barrett. I've heard good things about you. I think we can come to an agreement that can benefit both of our organizations."

"Yes, that is what I'd like to discuss, but I need a couple questions answered first."

"Whatever you need to know, I'll tell you."

"Good, that's what I like to hear." Brenda said, walking slowly towards the end of the pier, "I know you have some type of understanding with Jason and even have Sonny Corinthos working for you as some type of consultant/liason?"

"Yes, that is true."

"Okay, I want you to tell Sonny his services will no longer be needed. "

"May I ask why you don't want Corinthos working for me? He has a vast amount of knowledge about Mr. Morgan as well as the inner working of the Zacchara's and many other possible obstacles here on the east coast."

"I have my reasons and it's vital that Sonny have no connections to anyone I work with. If that's a problem for you, then our business is concluded."

"I didn't say I wouldn't do it, I was hoping for a reason, but I will assume your reasons are more than worthy. He will be notified as soon as possible that our agreement has come to an end."

"Excellent." Brenda said with an excited smile, "I have one more thing I need to know, what is your assessment of the Zacchara's? Who's really in control? I heard Anthony left, is that true?"

"It appears he has some type of terminal illness and he's left control of his organization to his children. Johnny is impulsive and aggressive, he lacks the experience to run just a large organization, while Claudia is smart, has good instincts, but she to lacks experience in such things and has proven to be soft in how she's dealt with Morgan and Corthinos. She could've easily eliminated them and yet she chose not to. Her reasons are not clear, but it seems as though she may have developed some type of friendship with Morgan and had a brief fling with Mr. Corinthos, allowing this to cloud her judgment."

"I'm starting to believe that Claudia is more of a liability than an asset."

"I won't disagree, but she does have a considerable organization behind her, with word that she has the backing of an even bigger group."

"I'd be that bigger group." Brenda said with a laugh, "I had hoped that the Zacchara's would be able to deal with things here in Port Charles, but perhaps I was wrong. I think you would be a good choice to run things here in Port Charles. Are you interested?"

"That was my ultimate goal, but do you ask this as a rival or are you asking me to be part of your organization?"

"To be honest, I don't have any interest in Port Charles, so you can have it. I do want to take care of Sonny and Jason on my own, so if you are okay with that, we should have no problems."

"I'm curious as to why you don't wish to add Port Charles to your organization. It is a perfect location for running not only drugs, but guns, ammunition, and any other sensitive material that cannot enter the country using conventional means."

"My reasons are personal and I won't be explaining them to anyone."

"Very well." Karpov nodded, not wishing to push Brenda further, "How long do you think it will take to deal with Morgan and Corinthos?

"If all goes well I should be out of here in less than a week."

"I can live with that." Karpov added, more than pleased with the outcome of the meeting.

"I will let you know when I've taken care of things. It was nice talking to you. I'll be in touch." Brenda said calmly as she walked past the mobster and got back into her long limo.

After Karpov had done the same and drove off, Jason walked back onto the pier and stood silent as she processed what he'd just seen.

Sam smiled at the puzzled look on Jason's face, "I'm guessing you didn't know Brenda was involved in this mob war that's about to happen?"

"She disappeared a few years ago and I thought she was ready to move on with her life and now that's she back and is intent on Sonny being isolated from the mob, I think she's here for revenge."

"I thought they made up when she came back last time?"

Jason nodded, but still hadn't managed an expression, "So did I, but it's clear she is still holding onto the same anger and hurt that caused her breakdown. I thought she was over that and now, I wonder how far she's willing to go to get back at Sonny."

"Well, she seemed very in control just now. A little cold and bitchy, but how can she have the power to do any of this?"

"That's what I need to find out." Jason said with his trademark blank stare, before disappearing into the maze of buildings behind them.

**End of Chapter 11**.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12.**

**Hotel Concorde La Fayette, Paris, France**.

Both Maxie and Lulu let out deep sighs of disappointment at being interrupted, but smiled at each other and then stepped out of the shower, searching for something to cover up with.

Kate shook her head at her two young employees, "I come to the door, I heard a loud thud and then a scream and I thought you were being attacked or something. So I got security up here to smash the door in. I had no idea I'd find the two of you, well together like that. I do apologize, but I was very concerned about your safety."

"It's fine." Lulu said as she grabbed a towel and slipped it around her body, "Maxie told me you'd be up here and well, I didn't believe her and I slipped and hit my head and that's what the scream was about."

"That doesn't explain the rest of it. I thought you hated each other. How long has this been going on?"

Maxie slid on her jeans, but quickly replied, "This was the first time and we really didn't do much, you made sure nothing else happened."

"Again, I'm sorry, but with all this mob stuff going on I'm still on edge."

After Lulu had finished getting dressed, she managed to look Kate in the eye for the first time, "We're ready for the meeting now, so let's just pretend this didn't happen and we can stick to business now."

"I'm not so sure I can just forget this, but I'm going to have to for now, because I need this meeting to go smoothly, so I hope you two will be on your best behaviour and have all the information I need ready on your trusty lap tops?"

"Yes, we're more than ready." Maxie said with a nod, smiling awkwardly at Lulu as she did.

"Good, well let's get moving. I want to get there with plenty of time to spare so I can relax and get my thoughts together before I make my presentation." Kate said firmly just as her cell phone began to ring, "Excuse me."

Maxie quickly took Lulu by the hand and led her out to the balcony, "Okay, this is weird now, but what are we going to do about what happened in the shower?"

"We don't have to do anything about it." Lulu said calmly, looking out into the beautiful blue sky, "We got caught up in a moment and now it's over and we need to move on."

"What? That's what you want to do?"

Lulu looked at Maxie, unsure of her intentions, "Don't you? We don't even like each other? You can't possibly think this could work. It was just sex, wasn't it?"

"I don't know, we didn't really get that far, but I can't deny that I enjoyed kissing you and I wanted to keep going."

"But that's still just sex. Do you even like me? I can't just have sex with someone, I have to care about them."

"Believe it or not, so do I." Maxie said, trying not to be offended at Lulu's insinuation, "When we aren't arguing, we actually work amazingly well together. We know what the other is thinking, we finish each other's sentences when it comes to work, so I don't think it's all hate or dislike or whatever you want to call it. There are parts of you that I envy so much."

"I know we work well together when we aren't bickering, I just got out of a relationship and I'm not sure I'm ready for another one just yet. I feel like this has all been a blur, I just don't know what to think right now. We should concentrate on making sure we do this job for Kate so she doesn't fire us and when we get back home we can sit down and talk about this more."

"What about tonight when we are here all alone, in the same room, in the same bed? You don't think that's going to be awkward now, cause I sure do."

"We are both adults, basically," Lulu said with a laugh, "So I think we can sleep in the same bed without doing anything. We're going to have to, because I can't do this right now."

"I agree, this isn't the right time for this, so I'm sure we'll manage tonight." Maxie said as seriously as she could, but then looked back at Lulu and began having all kinds of thoughts that were anything but PG.

Kate looked at the name on her cell and almost fell over, but happily answered it, "Olivia, is that really you?"

"Yes it is." Olivia said from her limousine, sipping a glass of insanely expensive champagne, "I'm in Port Charles and I thought we could catch up and I find you're off to France, so when are you going coming back?"

"I'll be back in a couple days, but why don't you tell me why you're in Port Charles? You said it was the last place you wanted to be."

Olivia curled her feet up in the seat and fidgeted with her silver bracelet as she pondered how to reply, "I need to tell you something, but I need to know that you won't tell another person. I can still trust you, right?"

"Of course you can." Kate said, wondering why her friend would ever ask such a thing.

"You remember when I had some financial problems a couple years ago, well what you don't know is how I solved them."

"I assumed you took out a loan or something, so what did you do?"

"In a way I did, but it was a different kind of loan. I'm not proud of what I did, but I met this woman who was very powerful and influential and we became friends and she said she'd be willing to help me, but I needed to do a favor for her."

"Who is this woman and what favor did you have to do?"

"Her name is Brenda Barrett. She's a former model who is now connected to organized crime, among many other business ventures. She's beautiful, charming, charismatic and incredibly sexy. I found myself hypnotized by her and I ended up doing things that I can't believe I did. "

"No you're starting to scare me, what kinds of things are you talking about?"

"Like I said, she's not just into the mob, she has all kinds of assets and one of them was a modeling agency. She was looking to buy the final 35% shares from these two former models and they wouldn't sell. Well, she asked me to talk to them, to try and persuade them to change their minds, so I did."

"Well that doesn't sound all that bad to me."

"It wouldn't have been if they had agreed right away, but they weren't really on speaking terms with Brenda. Apparently Brenda had been with both of them at different times and had dumped them both for younger women."

"Oh well, that would be a problem, but you made it sound like you had to do something illegal or immoral or something."

"I did a little of both and I know you're going to hate me when you hear it and yet I can't help it, I have to tell you."

"I could never hate you." Kate clarified without hesitation, "Whatever you did you did to save your family and that business you've worked so hard to build up. I would never judge you for things done under these conditions."

"I hope so, because I'm not sure I could be so understanding but let me get this out or I'll chicken out." Olivia said softly, as softly as her thick Brooklyn accent would allow. She took a long sip of champagne, lay back in the back seat and continued, "I'm not going mention their names, because they are both pretty well known, but let's call them Allie and Betty. I managed to strike up a friendship with them and over the course of a couple weeks ended up spending a lot of time with them, talking , going to clubs, drinking and generally just being a kid again."

"I think that sounds like fun."

"Oh it was, but I began to lose sight of who I was. I had a young boy at home that needed his mother and I was out partying all the time. I left him with a friend who was great to him, but still, I should've been there. Anyway, as I became closer with these two women something began to change in our friendship. I could feel this sexual energy every time I was in the room with them, but they are both so beautiful I thought it was just normal. I don't think I even realized I was attracted to them until the first time I kissed one of them."

"You did what?" Kate said with a slight gasp, "I guess that' s not a real surprise, I mean we did a little experimenting when we were younger."

"Oh yes, I would never forget that." Olivia said with a big smile, "Anyway, we had been out quite a few nights in a row and we went back to Allie's house and I'm not even sure what took place, but somehow we all ended up on the sofa together and I think they started kissing first and I sure found it exciting to watch and then I felt Allie's lips on mine and well, the rest you can probably figure out for yourself."

"OMG, you had sex with two supermodels at once? I'm shocked and impressed at the same time. I never would've guessed that one."

"Of course not, but that's just the beginning, because there's nothing scandalous about adults having consensual sex, so Brenda asked me to up the anti a lot."

"Oh dear, what does that mean?"

Olivia's limo pulled up outside the Port Charles Inn and she heard the driver get out and quickly sat up, "I have to go. I'll talk to you when you get back."

"Olivia. Olivia." Kate yelled under her breath, sighing as she saw her two employees walking towards her, "Well, are you two ready?"

"Yes we are." Maxie said as Lulu nodded her agreement and the three women left the hotel room and made their way to Kate's big meeting.

** Sonny's Home**.

Jason stopped outside of Sonny's main room, waiting patiently as Max ran ahead to let Sonny know he was there. Moments later Max returned and opened the door for Jason. He stepped into the familiar room, spotted Sonny looking out on the terrace and walked up to his former boss, "I need to talk to you about a new threat that has shown up."

"We've had this discussion before and I'm not interested in being a consultant to you." Sonny said without emotion.

"It's Brenda. She's back and she's out for revenge."

Sonny turned to face Jason, a stunned smile crossing his usually smug face, "I know you don't joke around and yet this feels like a really bad one. Why would Brenda want revenge after all these years?"

"I think the why is clear, but I'm not sure about the timing. Have you kept up with her at all over the last 5 years? We should've heard something if she were getting into this world. She may have more power than us or the Zacchara's combined."

"That can't be possible. I did have her followed for the first year, but she was living a normal, very quiet life so I brought my men back." Sonny replied, puzzled at his lack of information about his former girlfriend, "Who do you think she's working with?"

"I have no idea, but she may end up getting Karpov on her side as well. Unless you can get Brenda to rethink her revenge, we are going to have a much bigger problem on her hands."

"This doesn't fit." Sonny said, scratching his graying hair as he walked back into the living room, "Why don't you get your computer nerd to do some research on Brenda. I need to find out what she wants, because if she wanted me dead it seems she has the power to do it. Unless she wants to leave me at altar, I don't know what she could dot to hurt me."

"Sonny, you have children." Jason said bluntly.

"No, I can't believe she'd ever do something like that. If this is personal, she wants me to suffer." Sonny mumbled as he took a long drink of vodka, "Look you saw her, how did she seem? Was she her old self, full of energy, laughing, smiling, always up and positive?"

Jason walked over to the bar and thought back to his encounter with Brenda, "She was much more businesslike. She seemed to know what she was doing. She had Karpov eating out of her hand and it's likely he'd ally with her in a heartbeat."

"Then she must be Claudia's secret weapon." Sonny yelled, "How could we not know what she was doing?"

"I'm going to find out now." Jason said as he grabbed his coat and walked out the door.

** Sam's Apartment**.

Sam stepped out of the kitchen, water bottle in one hand and a turkey sandwich the other, she walked over and sat down in her favourite chair, kicked her shoes off and reached for the remote. She leaned back in the chair and let out a sigh at how comfortable she felt, finally getting a chance to clear her head. Or so she hoped until her doorbell began to ring.

She sat down her water and sandwich and walked towards her door. She peaked through the peephole and smiled as soon as she saw Elizabeth starting back at her, so she quickly pulled the door open, "Hi. I didn't expect to see you here."

"I know, but something happened today and I didn't know who else to talk to." Elizabeth said, walking past Sam without waiting for an answer, "I had a bit of a run in with Claudia Zacchara and I don't know what to do about it."

"What?" Sam said, slamming the door and rushing over to Elizabeth, "Did she hurt you?"

"No." Elizabeth said with a laugh, smiling at how concerned Sam was, "It's just that she acted different than usual. She started out being her usual scary self, but then something happened and she seemed all normal and almost friendly. She made me this amazing offer and I know I shouldn't be thinking about accepting it, but it's my dream."

"I'm lost. Why would she even need to talk to you? What offer are you talking about?"

"Well, she knows all about my past, obviously she's done research on everything connected to the mob in some way. Anyway, she knew about my painting and even my original love of designs and fashion and she offered to help me get some type of art center build where I could everything. I could paint or try and create some designs. It sounds perfect."

"Elizabeth, she's just trying to manipulate you. I don't know why, but she has a reason. You can't take her money. You now it's dirty money. "

"Sam, please don't tell me what I can do." Elizabeth said, snapping at Sam a little louder than she intended, "Look, you didn't see her okay. This wasn't the same woman who I saw yelling at her father at the hospital or fighting with Jason or giving me the evil eye more than once. She said she used to draw and was into fashion and she really seemed to be excited about the idea."

"I'm trying to be calm here, but you don't know what who you're dealing with. She is ruthless. Her only dream has been to prove herself to her psycho dad. I'm sorry if I came across as controlling, but I'm very worried about this situation."

"I appreciate your concern, honestly, but you have to let me make my own decisions. You have to trust that I wouldn't do anything to put my family in danger. I told Claudia that I wouldn't even think of getting into business with her until I knew she was out of the mob."

"You believe she'll do this? All to start some art center? " Sam asked rhetorically as she paced around Elizabeth, "I'm going to take a deep breath and you are going to tell me why I shouldn't go over there and have a nice long talk with the crazy mobster lady?"

Elizabeth smiled at Sam's over protective nature, "That's nice of you to offer, but I don't you getting shot and secondly, I want to see if she's serious. If she did quit the mob, maybe there's hope for her."

"Oh god Elizabeth, you are seeing way too much in this woman. You had one conversation with her, you can't possibly believe she knows what the truth is." Sam said, glancing at Elizabeth's disapproving face as she took a breath, "Look, I didn't want to bring this up, but I have some money put away and I would much rather give it to you than have you ever take anything from Claudia Zacchara."

"What money? Is it mob money or stolen or something?"

"Not really." Sam said with a cute grin, "It's from a business deal I made years ago. The details are boring, but the money is clean. I have it in a Swiss bank account for emergencies, but there's nobody I'd rather help with it than you."

"I don't know. Money and friends don't really work. I would hate for something to come between us when we are finally getting back on track."

"It wouldn't. I had no idea you had these dreams. I wish you would've told me." Sam said, putting her arms on Elizabeth's shoulders, "I can help. I want to help."

Standing so close to Sam had Elizabeth feeling things she still wasn't ready for, "I appreciate the offer, but why don't we see what Claudia does first?"

Sam pulled her hands away from Elizabeth and spun around, shaking her head in disappointment, "If that's what you want."

Elizabeth walked over to Sam and spun her around, "Are you mad, because maybe I could do something about that."

Instantly Sam's frown turned into a curious smile, "I'm not mad, but if you want do something I'm not going to stop you."

"I said I wasn't going to do this, but there's something about being near you that makes me lose all my willpower." Elizabeth said as she leaned in and kissed Sam on the lips. She kissed her soft and slow, savoring every second of her amazing lips.

Sam slid her arms around Elizabeth's small waist, pulling her in tightly while sliding her hands down over Elizabeth's firm round as she kissed her passionately. They kissed and kissed and kissed, moving all over the large living room, bouncing off the chairs, the sofa, the coffee table, finally ending up against the far wall, still locked in an amazing kiss, their bodies grinding against each other as they came up from air and smiled at what they were doing.

"Are you sure want this? I don't want to rush things if you're not ready." Sam said, kissing Elizabeth on her neck and down her chest, looking up at her while hovering over her perky breasts, "I can wait, it will be hard as hell, but I'll do whatever you need."

"Why do you have to be sexy?" Elizabeth said as she watched Sam push her t-shirt up to her neck, revealing her cute little white lace bra, "If you keep doing that I'm not going to be able to no."

"Do you want to say no?" Sam whispered as she kissed her way up Elizabeth's sexy little tummy.

"Oh god, I don't care, I can't hold out any longer. I want you right now." Elizabeth said, lifting her t-shirt up over her head and tossing it to the floor. She quickly reached back and unhooked her bra and proudly watched as it fell between the two women, "I'm ready."

Sam smiled widely and took Elizabeth by the hand and led her down the hall to her bedroom. She helped Elizabeth onto her bed, crawled on top of her and began kissing her hard and deep. Her hands happily cupping Elizabeth's breasts, much to the delight of Elizabeth, who purred her appreciation while never removing her lips from Sam's mouth.

As Sam enjoyed Elizabeth's breasts, Elizabeth reached up and tried pulling Sam's t-shirt off, but could only let out a groan as the t-shirt fell right back down. Sam smiled at Elizabeth's frown and pulled off her t-shirt and as soon as she did Elizabeth leaned up and put her hands over Sam's large breasts, cupping what she could with her tiny hands, excitedly caressing them through the annoying fabric of her bra.

With her breath becoming increasingly intense, Elizabeth reached around and removed Sam's bra and she couldn't hide her amazement as she had her first look at Sam's big beautiful naked breasts for the first time.

Smiling as Elizabeth touched her breasts for the first time, Sam put her hands over Elizabeth's and held them tight against her breasts. Just as Elizabeth moved her mouth up to Sam's breast, the doorbell rang and both women let out a collective sigh and Elizabeth fell back to the bed and Sam rolled her eyes, "I'm so sorry. I don't have to get it. Let's just ignore it."

Elizabeth didn't need to be talked into it and quickly pulled Sam back down on top of her, kissing her again as hard and deep as she could. With both women rolling around on the bed, the doorbell rang again and then again. Next came the pounding and they could both hear someone yelling something, but were too far away to hear what.

Sam rolled off Elizabeth and slipped her t-shirt on, "I need to get it. I don't know who is out there, but they don't seem to be going away. I'll be as fast as possible."

"It's okay. I'll be right here when you get back." Elizabeth said with a very sexy grin.

Hating to leave Elizabeth for even a moment, Sam knew she had no choice and marched down the hall and took a look out the peephole and lowered her head as she saw Scott Baldwin and cringed even more when she saw Lucky beside him.

Opening the door, Sam gave Scott a look of annoyance, "What do you want?"

"I think you what I want." Scott bellowed as he stared down at Sam, "I need to ask you some questions about the disappearance of my son, Logan Hayes."

"I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't even know your son."

"We have witnesses that say you threatened him after a conversation he had with Lulu. Are you denying you made these threats?"

"I was trying to get him to back off Lulu. He was out of control and I was worried about Lulu's safety. I sure didn't mean it. I have not seen him since."

Scotty wasn't interested in Sam's explanations, he just wanted someone to pay, "Right now you are my only suspect, so unless you can point me in another direction, you are looking at some serious time behind bars."

"You can't arrest me." Sam said with an annoyed laugh, "You don't even know if he's missing or if he's just not able to call you. I have no reason to harm your son. Why don't you just wait until he calls you. I did not kidnap him."

"Then who did? We were supposed to have dinner a couple nights ago and he didn't call and he hasn't been seen anywhere, so something has happened. I'm not going to rest until I find out what's going on."

"I know he's been working for Anthony Zacchara, so maybe that's where you should be looking. He is a mobster you know. Maybe they had a falling out. Logan does have a temper, so if he pissed off the wrong people, well, I hope nothing has happened to him, but I honestly have not seen him for almost a week."

"I tried to contact Anthony but he's apparently in Florida. I'll get in touch with him soon enough, but if he didn't do this, then I'll be back." Scott turned and walked down the hall, stopping to look at Lucky, "Are you coming?"

"No, I need to talk to Sam for a minute." Lucky said as Scott stormed off. He grinned and then turned to face Sam, "Can I come in for a minute?"

Sam folder her arms across her chest and looked back towards her bedroom, "You know, this really isn't a good time. I've had a long day and I'm just ready for bed."

"This won't take long."

Sensing Lucky wasn't going to take no for an answer, Sam stepped aside and let Lucky in, "What's on your mind?"

"I don't know if you've heard, but Elizabeth and Lulu broke up. I know this has hit Elizabeth hard and she's trying to use work to keep her mind off of things, but I tried talking to her but she wasn't ready to talk to me. I'm a little too close to the situation, but I thought since you two seemed to be on speaking terms again that maybe you could have talk with her. I just wanted know if she's okay."

"I'm sure she'll be fine. It's nice that you're concerned about her, but she's a big girl and I think she'll find a way to get through this."

"I hope you're right, but I'd really appreciate it if you'd talk to her."

"Okay, if you think it would help, I will."

Elizabeth got up out the bed, wrapped a sheet around her naked body and walked into the hallway. With the loud voices gone, she went to check on things. As she turned to walk into the living room, her face went white and she stood all but paralyzed as she saw Sam talking to Lucky.

It didn't take Lucky long to look over and see his ex wife standing in front of him, with a sheet over her naked body. He shook his head and opened and closed his eyes repeatedly, not believing what he was seeing, "Please tell me this isn't what it looks like."

**End of Chapter 12.**

I hate to say it but this story is coming to an end. I appreciate everyone who has read it and enjoyed and the feedback has made me wish I had the time and energy to keep it going, but unfortunately it's just too big a project to keep doing alone. Now I know why they have a staff of writers for soaps. There's just so many characters, plots and storylines to keep track of it, it's a very time consuming process. I have a couple more chapters that I will post and when I'm finished I will give a brief outline as to how I see each person's story wrapping up so there will be some closure to the story. Thanks again for reading.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13. Final Chapter.  
**

**Room 565, Port Charles Inn**.

Olivia grabbed a few more dresses from her suitcase, walked over and hung them in the closet, before returning for more. After she had filled up the small closet, she walked over to a smaller suitcase and opened it up. Inside a small compartment she pulled out an S&W Centennial, .38 calibre handgun and slid it into her purse. She then pulled out a picture of her and Brenda on the beach in Ibiza and sat it on the counter above the fire place and then pulled out a second picture of Brenda and her son Dante and sat it beside the first one.

As she reached into the bag once more there was a knock on the door, causing her to leave the final picture in the bag. She walked towards the door, took a deep breath and opened it. There was little surprise as Brenda stood in front of her, "I thought I'd be seeing you, but I didn't think it would be tonight."

Brenda walked past Olivia and into her hotel room. She removed her coat, tossed it on the sofa and turned to face Olivia, spinning in a circle so Olivia could have a nice long look at her sexy silver dress, complete with a plunging neckline and slit the came up to her thighs, "Well, what do think? Do you want go dancing, because this dress is perfect for a night on the town."

"I just got in a couple hours ago." Olivia said, with a slight eye roll, "I'm a bit tired to go partying, because we know you don't leave until morning arrives."

"You say that like it's a bad thing." Brenda smiled, grabbing Olivia by the hand and pulling her in close, "Are you sure I can't do something to persuade to come with me?"

Olivia shook her head, "Brenda, we agreed that we were keep things on a friendly basis from now, no more sex."

"I was asking you to go dancing, not to have a quickie." Brenda snapped, her smile disappearing as she slipped away from Olivia, "Why can't we still have fun together? Are you still upset over what you did with those models? It worked. I got the company and you were very well compensated and I don't think it was work at all. Your part was the fun part, you enjoyed those two girls more than you've enjoyed most anything, so stop acting all saddy waddy about it."

"You had me bring in an underage girl so you could blackmail them, I think I have a right to be upset."

Brenda began laughing hysterically, falling ontop of her coat on the sofa, "I thought I told you about that? Didn't I? Since the deal is long over and I have control of my agency again, I can let you know that you did not commit a crime and neither did they. That girl was 19 actually, but she sure did look young didn't she? Sweet as can be, but that face, she could pass for 14 and that's what I needed."

"Are you kidding me? How is that possible?" Olivia asked, questioning Brenda's version of things, "I found her at a high school, like you said."

"Listen, I've learned a lot in the last five years and one thing I learned was to be prepared for anything. Who told you where to go to look for someone young?"

"You did I guess, but you can't create a fake high school."

"No, but I can put people around it and I told you where to look and every girl in that room was over 18. Sure they looked young, but that was the point. You sure did pick the youngest looking one though."

"Okay, that might even be worse. So you let me believe that I had been with someone underage for almost a year? That's unforgivable."

"Now you are overreacting." Brenda said, getting to her feet and stopping in front of Olivia, "I would never ask you to do anything illegal. I consider you a friend and I love you and Dante way too much to put you in that kind of situation."

"But you made me think it." Olivia said, still fuming at Brenda, "Do you know how much hell I've been putting myself through? I can't believe you didn't feel it was important enough to let me know what you were doing. What difference would it make if I knew she was 19?"

"First of all, I think your awkwardness added to the realism of the situation. Did you see the models having an issue with her age? Of course not, they'd have sex with anything." Brenda said calmly, moving ever so close to Olivia, "Since we have that cleared up, are you ready for some dancing?"

Olivia stared at Brenda with a questioning smile, "I should be so mad at you right now. I'd love to know how you make me smile at a time like this."

Brenda slipped her hand around Olivia's waist and "Because deep down you know I wouldn't do that to you and you feel a little silly for thinking it for all this time. So, now you are remembering all the fun we used to have together and in spite of being tired, there's a part of you that still wants to go out and dance the night away."

"Maybe a little, but I'm really tired and I couldn't even if I wanted to, but I'd love it if you could stay for a little while and fill me in on why I'm here."

"This wasn't supposed to be about business." Brenda said, flopping back on the sofa, "You know, once this plan comes together I'm going to be leaving Port Charles and slipping back into a much quieter life and I won't be able to talk to you again, let alone see you again, so can we just have fun for now?"

"What are you talking about?" Olivia asked, more than a little stunned by Brenda's words, "Why would you have to disappear? I thought this about revenge, not murder?"

"It is, but Sonny isn't about to take this lying down." Brenda sighed, stretching her legs out and reaching for her glass of wine, "When I first thought about this, I had this idea I could somehow humiliate him and it would be kind of funny, but as it grew and grew and became more real, I began to realize that Sonny doesn't have a sense of humor so he's going to be pretty mad. I'm also worried that he may end up dead anyway."

"Why? I thought you were on control of all this?"

"It's not that simple." Brenda snapped, again getting to her feet and walked briskly over to the big picture window, "I've been able to amass a small army of followers. I have so many organizations under my control right now I'm amazed I'm still here right now, because I'm sure they'd all like to take me out and take over."

"So why do it? Is it really worth it?" Olivia asked as she followed Brenda towards the window, "You are making him way too important and he's not. You've said that over and over again."

"I can't stop now." Brenda said, resigned to the thought she had no choice, "I did this because a friend of mine had a similar experience and she really wanted me to make Sonny pay for all the women who've ever been stood up at the altar."

"Still, with all these powerful crime boss types all wanting to be in your position, at the top of some massive organization, then you might not live long enough to see this plan through."

Brenda smiled and drank the last bit of her wine, "Trust me, I've been thinking about little else lately, but this is already in motion. I've got so many resources here in PC and I can't just tell them to pack up and leave. They want territory, they don't care about my revenge. I don't know that I can stop this now. I never wanted Sonny dead, but I think that's how this is going to end."

"Oh Brenda, I wish I could help." Olivia said with a deep sigh, putting her hand on Brenda's shoulder.

"I have to go. Katja's arriving today and I need to be there." Brenda said softly, grabbing her coat and moving slowly towards the door, "I feel bad bringing you here now. I don't think I'm going to need you to do anything, because I think I have screwed everything up so bad that I may have put everyone in PC in danger. I'll call you later, but I think I'm going to send you back home."

"No, I'm not leaving until I see Kate and she's flying back but I have no idea when she'll get here."

"Good, you should see her. I know you've missed her." Brenda stepped into the hallway, leaned in and gave Olivia a hug and smiled as she walked towards the elevators and back to a life she was beginning to hate.

**Sam's Apartment**.

"Lucky, I really think you should go now." Sam said as she watched him walk towards Elizabeth.

"First my sister and now my ex girlfriend, I can't believe this." Lucky said, stunned at Elizabeth's actions, "How long has this going been going on? Is this why you broke up with Lulu? Have you been cheating on her?"

"No, of course not." Elizabeth said, instinctively sliding in behind Sam, "I'm sorry you had to find out like this, but we never did anything when I was with your sister. I promise."

"Still, it hasn't been that long. I don't understand." Lucky paced back in forth, totally lost at what he was hearing, "At best I thought you two were being civil with each other and now this? Something doesn't add up."

"Lucky, I know this is a shock, but Elizabeth hasn't done anything wrong." Sam said, doing her best to stand up for Lizzie.

Lucky turned his attention to Sam next, "I can't believe you. You know Elizabeth just broke up with my sister and you were just with Maxie the other night, does Elizabeth know about that?"

Elizabeth looked at Sam and her face went from white to red, "What is he talking about? You didn't say anything about hooking up with Maxie again?"

"Thanks a lot Lucky, you can go now." Sam said, turning around and walking back to the front door, holding it open as she glared at Lucky, "Now please."

Lucky looked at Elizabeth and knew it wasn't the time to continue that conversation, so he turned and walked towards the door, "Fine, but this isn't over."

"What's that supposed to mean." Sam asked, while Elizabeth walked up and stood beside her.

"Sam is as much connected to the mob as Jason. She's always involved in some scam or another. I don't know if it's a good idea for you to be around her."

"That's none of your business." Elizabeth said, clearly caught off guard by Lucky's tone.

"You are finally out from the mob and I hoped that you'd stay away from that." Lucky said with a disappointed sigh, "Didn't you learn anything from all the danger Jason brought into your life? I'm not saying Sam is in Jason's league, but she does seek out danger, she loves adventure and that will only bring danger to the kids."

"You know that's not true. Why you are saying these things?" Sam asked, feeling blindsided by Lucky's comments.

"You've said your peace, now I think you really need to do now." Elizabeth said, stepping back inside Sam's apartment as she closed the door. She took a moment to compose herself and then looked right at Sam, "Did you have sex with Maxie just a few days ago?"

"It's not what you think. I'm not with Maxie." Sam said, more than ready to explain her actions, "We were alone and instead of getting drunk we, well, we did something else instead. She knows I love you. I do love you. I know I should've said something, but I had no idea you were coming over tonight."

"I thought that was over." Elizabeth said, backing away as Sam stepped closer, "Is Lucky right about you and danger? Are you still seeking it out?"

"Okay, this isn't going to sound good, but ugh, it's not what you think either, but I want to be honest with you. I did run into Jason tonight but it was an accident. I have no desire to get involved in his life at all. I don't need danger to make me happy, I used danger and excitement as a way to get that adrenaline rush I crave, but I don't need that when I'm with you. You are all I need or want. I would never put your kids in danger again. I did that once and I'll hate myself for the rest of life, but I would never do that to you or them. Please tell me you believe me?"

"Oh Sam, I want to believe you and maybe you are telling the truth, but Maxie? How could you. You know I'm not really a fan of hers, to put it mildly. Can't you just say no to sex?"

Sam couldn't help but smirk at Elizabeth's question, "It looks bad and I guess it is, but I honestly only want you. I don't want to get all technical here, but in my defense we weren't together when I was with Maxie. I'm not sure we are even together now. I'm not sure what tonight was really, but I wasn't going to pass up a chance to be with you."

"This isn't funny." Elizabeth said, again moving out of the way of Sam's continuing pursuit, "I don't know what I was thinking. I shouldn't even be here. This is what happens when I'm around you. I can't think straight and look what happens, I end up in bed with you. That's not how I want this to be. I don't want to just have sex. If anything was going to happen between us, I want it to be love first."

"But I do love you." Sam insisted, "I think you know that. I have for so long now. I thought you felt the same, that's why I thought you were ready? Don't you love me?"

Elizabeth didn't need to say anything, her silence said it all for her.

Unable to hide her hurt, Sam turned away from Elizabeth and tried hard to not cry, "Well, I don't know what to say now. I am sorry I didn't tell you about Maxie. I feel a bit strange right now, I think maybe I was expecting something I shouldn't have. If you think I'm a danger to you and your kids you need to leave, because we can't work if you think this."

"You're right, I don't want to be questioning the things you do and yet tonight has brought up a couple issues that need to be sorted out." Lizzie said calmly, "I know things happened fast tonight and I was as much responsible for us ending up in bed as you were. I am hoping you would've told me about Maxie though. As for the danger issue, I believe you. I know you have your new show and I hope that keeps you busy and gives you a different type of adrenaline rush and then you won't have to seek out adventure anymore."

"We can keep seeing each other right?"

"Yes, I really do want that. I want to spend as much time with you as I can. I do care about you so much. Don't read anything into my silence." Lizzie smiled, happily reassuring Sam that all was not lost, "Every time I've said I love you to someone the relationship has ended, usually in disaster. So when I say it to, I want to know that we are going to be together forever."

"Okay, but I already know we will." Sam said with a smile, finally able to get close enough to Elizabeth to put her arms around her, "I can wait until your ready to say it, but that doesn't mean I have to wait, because I do love you Elizabeth Webber and I hope you trust me when I say you are the last person I will ever say those words to because we will be together for the rest of our lives."

Elizabeth smiled at Sam's confident prediction, "It's really hard to stay mad at you when you say such beautiful things." Elizabeth kissed Sam again, another soft, slow loving kiss, before pulling back and smiling at her, "As much as I'd love to spend the night with you, I can't. I told Audrey I'd only be an hour and I'm already late. Just know that I loved every second of our time in that bedroom together and we will be there again, okay and the next time we are there nothing is going to stop us. I couldn't take that again."

"I can't believe you're leaving." Sam groaned, but followed Elizabeth back to the bedroom and sat on the bed and enjoyed ever second as she watched Elizabeth slowly get dressed in front of her.

**End of the line.**

This story is officially over. I think the basic pairings are pretty clear and I hadn't really decided on who Claudia would end up with, but Olivia was certainly a good possibility had this gone on longer. If I ever write another soap story I'll stick to one pair and work with that. *G* Anyway, I hope those of you who read it enjoyed and I do appreciate the feedback as always. Thanks for reading. 


End file.
